Method and system for refilling a parking meter

ABSTRACT

A method and system for remotely seeking assistance to timely refill an expiring parking meter and generating notifications thereof. Data indicative of a vehicle being parked in a parking space and parking meter time limit information are received for a parking meter associated with the parking space. An approaching expiration of the parking meter time limit is detected and sent to the first user. The first user may then transmit a request to additional users in the area for assistance with refilling the parking meter. Upon acceptance of the request by a second user, the first user is notified. An escrow account is established for the first user to deposit payment for the refilling, and notification of the deposit is sent to the second user. Upon completion, the second user transmits proof of the refilling and the deposit payment is transferred from the escrow account to the second user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.15/645,079, filed on Jul. 10, 2017, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 14/859,274, filed on Sep. 19, 2015, now U.S. Pat.No. 9,704,392, issued on Jul. 11, 2018, and this application is acontinuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/617,881, filed on Jun. 8, 2017, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/859,274, filed on Sep. 19, 2015, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,704,392, issued on Jul. 11, 2018, each of which claimthe benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 62/086,560, filed onDec. 2, 2014, provisional application Ser. No. 62/092,100, filed on Dec.15, 2014, provisional application Ser. No. 62/104,510, filed on Jan. 16,2015, provisional application Ser. No. 62/150,118, filed on Apr. 20,2015, and provisional application Ser. No. 62/210,701, filed on Aug. 27,2015, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein intheir entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a method and system for legal parkingand, more specifically, to a method and system for remotely seekingassistance to timely refill an expiring parking meter and/or to requestassistance in finding legal parking spaces.

DISCUSSION OF THE RELATED ART

Because public parking is generally cheaper than private or commercialparking, many drivers prefer to look for public and/or on-streetparking. However, parking goes beyond merely finding an unoccupiedspace, and includes finding a legal unoccupied space. Therefore, toguide a user to a parking space or location, part of the process mayinvolve understanding which spaces or locations are legal or illegal andwhen for certain drivers or vehicles.

Numerous local parking ordinances and rules exist that apply to parking,and +frequently regulate where and for how long a vehicle may be parked.A driver who parks a vehicle in a manner that is not permitted undersuch ordinances and rules may be described as having committed a parkingviolation. When a law enforcement officer such as a police officer orother traffic enforcement officer finds a vehicle parked in anunpermitted manner, a ticket or citation for a parking violation may beissued. Tickets issued for parking violations may be difficult tocontest successfully and may carry a significant monetary penalty orpenalty points toward a license. These penalties can result in anincrease in the cost of vehicle insurance or even suspension orrevocation of a driver license.

Additionally, improperly parked vehicles can impede the flow of traffic,interfere with the operation of public transportation and sanitationservices, and block emergency and essential services from beingeffectively delivered. Accordingly, it is in the public interest toincrease adherence to parking rules and ordinances. Roadway congestionand lack of parking spaces, combined with the inherent difficulty inknowing where to look for an open space and the continuing increase inthe number of vehicles on the road further challenge a driver's abilityto find appropriate legal parking in a timely manner.

Parking rules, regulations, laws, citation codes, etc. (hereinafter,“RRLC”) can be very complex, especially in large cities where there maybe many reasons for restricting where drivers can park as well as a highdemand for parking spaces with many vehicles. Attempts to centralize alllegal parking related data seem to be held back by rules that constantlyundergo changes, revisions, etc., by those who make and enforce them.Furthermore, they are sometimes enforced by law enforcement irregularlymany times, parking rules may be clear individually, but might not beclear enough when multiple rules overlap or contradict each other inreal parking situations.

Due to a lack of understanding or confusion about the parking rules andsigns at specific locations, it is common for drivers to commit parkingviolations when parking in unoccupied spaces, even when they have nointention to violate the rules. In such cases, drivers simply cannotunderstand or might not have the time to understand all the rules, andwhich, if any, apply to them. Drivers would be well served if they couldsee information (e.g., parking rules) that only applied to them as wellas to potentially available parking spaces, with unrelated informationand illegal parking spaces precluded. Such functionality would enhanceunderstanding and adherence to parking rules through simplified deliveryof information.

Also, legal parking locations often utilize parking meters to collectfees for parking in those spaces for certain time durations on certaindays. These meters generally come in two main types, includingmulti-space parking meters and/or single-space parking meters.Conventionally, the parking meter is operated by inserting payment(e.g., coins, credit cards, chip cards, electronic purse cards, etc.)directly into the parking meter, which then displays and counts theamount of the purchase in increments, each of which corresponds to theallowed parking time period. More recently, however, parking meters havebeen equipped for wireless communication with a parking managementsystem. One such system includes a computerized parking managementsystem in wireless communication with at least one single-space parkingmeter so as to communicate parking data therebetween. The system alsoincludes a mobile citation unit in communication with the parkingmanagement system to communicate parking enforcement data via thewireless network.

However, many parking meters today, either single-space or multi-space,are not equipped with such wireless communication for enablingnotification of meter expiration, or for enabling replenishment thereof.Thus, the user must return to the parked vehicle, often a considerabledistance away from the user's location, in order to refill or replenishthe funds in the meter. This is often impractical, inconvenient orsometimes not possible, and the end result is accepting a parkingcitation, which can be rather costly. There is therefore a need for asystem and method for remotely seeking assistance to have an expiringparking meter refilled.

As discussed herein, the method and system of the inventive disclosureovercomes many of the limitations of prior art. The method and systemdisclosed provides a unique combination of attributes for assisting auser in finding potentially available legal parking, including adatabase sorted to deliver applicable and targeted information to usersthat is dynamically updated based on changes from data sources. Inaddition, changes can be incorporated from a user engagement panel,where users can rate and discuss legal parking related data andinformation and communicate in order to request legal parking spacesand/or request assistance with refilling an expiring parking meter.Other objects, features, and characteristics of the inventivedisclosure, as well as the methods of operation and functions of therelated structural elements, and the combination of parts and economiesof development and manufacture, will become more apparent uponconsideration of the detailed description below with reference to theaccompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The summary is not intended to identify or point to essential featuresor limit the scope of the subject matter claimed herein. The inventivedisclosure relates generally to a system for identifying potentiallyavailable legal parking, and more specifically, to establish a systemand method for remotely seeking assistance to timely refill an expiringparking meter and/or to request assistance in finding legal parkingspaces, with at least the following objectives:

To establish a system in which data can be categorized by data type,which corresponds to at least a user type, so that a user receives datathat is relevant to at least the user's user type and applicable to atleast the user's location to not overload the user with excessivenotifications.

To establish a system to identify one or more potentially availablelegal parking locations for the user by precluding one or more illegalparking locations from identification as the one or more potentiallyavailable legal parking locations based on one or more parkingprohibitions directly applicable or applicable by inference to the user.

To establish a system where users can contribute one or more suggestionsrelating to finding legal parking, one or more recommendations relatingto avoiding parking violations, one or more real-time updates relatingto a street cleaning start time, one or more real-time updates relatingto a street cleaning end time, one or more photos of parking signs, andone or more redesigns of parking signs relating to plain languagemeaning, content clarification, or language translation to help otherusers understand parking rules and regulations.

To establish a computing system in which legal parking related datacomprises historical legal parking related data correlated to real timelegal parking related data dynamically to keep one or more databases upto date.

To establish a system where data submitted by users can be used toupdate, correct, and supplement the one or more databases dynamically,where users can be given a monetary or non-monetary reward asconsideration for submitting data.

To establish a route plan for a user to guide the user to one or morelocations which have more potentially available legal parking, as wellas notify a user of one or more locations with no potentially availablelegal parking.

To establish a system in which users can seek assistance from anotheruser to refill a parking meter, and in which another user can offer torefill another user's parking meter.

To establish a system which detects the geo-location of other users thatare within a certain distance of the user's parked vehicle or theparking meter associated with the location of the parked vehicle inorder to send meter refill or replenishment requests to such other usersmost likely to accept the user's request.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure provides acomputer-implemented method for seeking assistance with timely refillinga parking meter comprising receiving data indicating that a vehicle of afirst user is parked in a parking space associated with a parking meter,storing the data in a database, receiving parking meter time limitinformation for the parking meter, identifying an expiration time atwhich the parking meter time limit expires, notifying the first user ofthe expiration time of the parking meter during a predetermined timeperiod prior to the expiration time, transmitting a request from thefirst user to one or more additional users for assistance with refillingthe parking meter, identifying an acceptance of the request by a seconduser selected from the one or more additional users, and transmittingthe acceptance of the request from the second user to the first user.

Another exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure provides acomputer-implemented method for seeking assistance with timely refillinga parking meter comprising receiving data indicating that a vehicle of afirst user is parked in a parking space associated with a parking meter,storing the data in a database, wherein the data includes a location ofthe parking meter associated with the parking space, receiving parkingmeter time limit information for the parking meter, identifying anexpiration time at which the parking meter time limit expires,determining whether the parking meter associated with the parking spacerequires refilling at the expiration time, in response to determiningthat the parking meter associated with the parking space requiresrefilling at the expiration time, notifying the first user of theexpiration time of the parking meter during a predetermined time periodprior to the expiration time, transmitting a request from the first userto one or more additional users for assistance with refilling theparking meter, identifying an acceptance of the request by a second userselected from the one or more additional users, and transmitting theacceptance of the request from the second user to the first user.

Yet another exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure provides acomputer-implemented system for seeking assistance with timely refillinga parking meter comprising at least one server, a database fordynamically storing parking meter data, a plurality of remote computingdevices associated with a plurality of users in connection with acommunication network, at least one non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium for storing computer-readable instructions, wherein theat least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is inconnection with the communication network and resides on the at leastone server, and at least one processor for executing thecomputer-readable instructions to receive data indicative of a vehicleassociated with a first user being parked in a parking space, store thedata associated with the parking space in a database, receive parkingmeter time limit information for a parking meter associated with theparking space, identify an expiration time at which the parking metertime limit expires, determine whether the parking meter associated withthe parking space requires refilling at the expiration time, in responseto determining that the parking meter associated with the parking spacerequires refilling at the expiration time, notify the first user of theexpiration time of the parking meter during a predetermined time periodprior to the expiration time, transmit a request from the first user toone or more additional users for assistance with refilling the parkingmeter, identify an acceptance of the request by a second user selectedfrom the one or more additional users, transmit the acceptance of therequest from the second user to the first user, establish an escrowaccount for the user to deposit payment for the refilling of the parkingmeter, notify the second user of the deposit payment in the escrowaccount, receive information from the second user indicative of proof ofthe refilling of the parking meter, and transmit the deposit paymentfrom the escrow account to the second user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the inventive disclosure can be obtained byreference to a preferred embodiment set forth in the illustrations ofthe accompanying drawings. The drawings are not intended to limit thescope of this invention, which is set forth with particularity in theclaims as appended or as subsequently amended, but merely to clarify andexemplify the invention. Accordingly, a more complete appreciation ofthe inventive disclosure and many of the attendant aspects thereof maybe readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by referenceto the detailed description when considered in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for identifyingpotential legal parking and/or to request assistance with finding legalparking or refilling an expiring parking meter in accordance withexemplary embodiments of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of acomputing device for enabling a user to interact with the computingsystem in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system and method forgenerating a notification in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe inventive disclosure;

FIGS. 4A-4B are schematic diagrams illustrating database content andorganization in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the inventivedisclosure;

FIGS. 5A-5B are flowcharts illustrating approaches for obtaining andprocessing parking occupancy related data as part of potentiallyavailable legal parking related data in accordance with exemplaryembodiments of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an approach for when anotification is transmitted to a user in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating how the parking ticket informationreported through the user engagement panel is recognized, processed, anduploaded to the system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an approach for obtaining andprocessing parking violation related data as part of legal parkingrelated data in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure;

FIGS. 9A-9B are schematic diagrams of a remote computing device furtherillustrating a user's interaction with the computing system using theremote computing device when reporting a parking ticket according to anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIGS. 10A-10B are schematic diagrams of the remote computing deviceshown in FIGS. 9A-9B further illustrating a user interface of the userengagement panel showing a “Tickets Sharing” panel and a “Q/A/C” (i.e.,questions, answers, comments) panel based on a specific locationaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIGS. 10C-10D are schematic diagrams of the remote computing deviceshown in FIGS. 9A-9B further illustrating a user interface of the userengagement panel showing a “Signs” panel and “Other” panel according toan exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process of rating legal parkingrelated data submitted using the user engagement panel and how thoseratings of the submitted data affect the data within the databaseaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process of rating a notificationaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a process of alerting the user topotentially available legal parking, among other things, based on thedata in the database according to an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an approach for users to post arequest for a parking space to find another user about to vacate ormight be willing to give up a parking space to the user according to anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an approach for users to post anoffer for a parking space to find another user looking for availablelegal parking and willing to accept the offer of a parking spaceaccording to exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for inferring apotential parking prohibition based on location according to anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram illustrating a user's remote computingdevice and a notification that a user may receive regarding a potentialparking prohibition based on location according to an exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for inferring apotential parking prohibition based on time according to an exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 19 illustrates a notification that a user may receive on the user'sremote computing device regarding a potential parking prohibition basedon time according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an approach for a user to post arequest for providing an expiring parking meter payment according to anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram illustrating an approach for a parkingmeter payment assistance system through a user's request to have anexpiring parking meter payment be made by another according to exemplaryembodiments of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating a methodology for a user to post anoffer to refill an expiring parking meter according to exemplaryembodiments of the inventive disclosure;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart illustrating a methodology for a user to requestassistance with refilling an expiring parking meter according toexemplary embodiments of the inventive disclosure; and

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram illustrating a user who is approaching alocation for parking sending a request through the system to other usersfor assistance with finding available legal parking, and furtherillustrating a user sending a request through the system to other usersfor assistance with refilling an expiring parking meter according toexemplary embodiments of the inventive disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specificterminology so selected, and it is to be understood that each specificelement includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similarmanner. As required, a detailed illustrative embodiment of the inventivedisclosure is disclosed herein. However, techniques, methods, systems,compositions and operating structures in accordance with the inventivedisclosure may be embodied in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, forms andmodes, some of which may be quite different from those in the disclosedembodiment. Consequently, the specific structural, functional andstep-by-step details disclosed herein are merely representative, yet inthat regard, they are deemed to afford the best embodiment for purposesof disclosure and to provide a basis for the claims herein which definethe scope of the inventive disclosure.

In the following detailed description, specific embodiments that may bepracticed are shown by way of illustration and explanation. Theembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the embodiments, and it is to be understood thatthe logical, mechanical, and other changes may be made without departingfrom the scope of the embodiments. The following detailed description istherefore not to be taken in a limiting sense. In describing exemplaryembodiments of the inventive disclosure illustrated in the drawings,specific terminology is employed for sake of clarity. However, thepresent disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specificterminology so selected, and it is to be understood that each specificelement includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similarmanner.

The term “driver(s)” herein may be used interchangeably with “user(s),”which is intended to encompass driver(s) and include those individualswho might not be drivers but, nevertheless, receive assistance orprovide assistance by using the inventive disclosure. In addition,“user” is also intended to cover a wide array of subjects. A “user” maygenerally encompass private individuals and entities through its one ormore representatives interested in finding potentially available legalparking; in essence, the word “user” is intended to describe anyinterested individual or interested individuals affiliated with entitiesregistered with the inventive disclosure, not limited only to privateindividuals, such as artificial intelligence or self-driving vehicles.The terms “parking citation(s),” “parking ticket(s),” or “parkingviolation citation(s)” may be used interchangeably, and their meaningsmay be the same (e.g., ticket(s) received by a driver for a parkingviolation).

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure, as describedherein, is not limited to applications involving conventional computerprograms or programmable apparatuses that run them. It is contemplated,for example, that embodiments of the invention could include an opticalcomputer, quantum computer, analog computer, or the like. Each elementin the flowchart illustrations herein may depict a step, or group ofsteps, of a computer-implemented method. Further, each step may containone or more sub-steps. For purposes of illustration only, these steps(as well as any and all other steps identified and described above) arepresented in a particular order. However, it will be understood that anembodiment of the inventive disclosure can contain an alternate order ofthe steps adapted to a particular application of a technique disclosedherein.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure,multiple “data types” corresponding to multiple “user types” may bedisclosed herein. Though the inventive disclosure might be contemplatedfor use with numerous types of data corresponding to numerous types ofusers, it is also contemplated that the inventive disclosure be used toprocess one type of data for one type of user (e.g., only processingtaxi related data and notifying taxi drivers about legal parking fortaxis, or only processing truck data and notifying truck drivers aboutlegal parking for trucks). In addition, it is also contemplated, andfalls within the scope of the inventive disclosure, that data typesand/or user types might be combined or separated in any conceivablemanner. In another example, truck and taxi related data might beprocessed to alert truck and taxi drivers about legal parking for trucksand taxis, respectively. It will be obvious to one of ordinary skill inthe art that embodiments of the inventive disclosure described hereinare intended to be exemplary.

All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within thescope of this disclosure. The depiction and description of steps in anyparticular order is not intended to exclude embodiments having the stepsin a different order, unless required by a particular application,explicitly stated, or otherwise clear from the context. The elementsdepicted in flowchart illustrations and block diagrams throughout thefigures imply logical boundaries between the elements. However,according to software or hardware engineering practices, the elementsdepicted and the functions thereof may be implemented as parts of amonolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or asmodules that employ external routines, code(s), services, and so forth,or any combination of these. All such implementations are within thescope of the present disclosure.

In the description of the figures below, it is understood that thedetails described above may be combined with or used in place of similarattributes described below and that the figures are used only toillustrate particular exemplary embodiments of the inventive disclosure.It is to be understood, that for the purpose of providing simplifiedfigures that are easy to understand, many of the details above have beenomitted from the figures. However, it is contemplated that the detailsdescribed above may be incorporated into the approach of the descriptionbelow in any feasible manner. Exemplary embodiments described herein areillustrative, and many variations can be introduced without departingfrom the spirit of the disclosure. For example, elements and/or featuresof different exemplary embodiments may be combined with each otherand/or substituted for each other within the scope of this disclosure.In view of the foregoing, it may now be appreciated that elements of theschematic diagrams and flowchart illustrations support combinations ofelements for performing the specified functions, combinations of stepsfor performing the specified functions, program instruction media forperforming the specified functions, and so on, whether the steps areperformed automatically or not.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure comprises to theimplementation of a system and method through a combination of hardwareand software that operates on a portable computing device, which furthercomprises various pre-programmed features combined and integrated withcomponents including but not limited to one or more servers, databases,mobile end applications, web portals, network settings, etc. With thesupport of these components, information may be provided through userinterfaces, such as a website, an application, or an in-vehiclenavigation system. In addition, there may be one or more servers thatmay be in a distributed structure with support from data centers thatmay be located anywhere around the world. These implementations may becommunicatively linked and cross-platformed with the electronic mapdisplay, indicators which convey legal parking related information,profile, setting information, etc., so that a user on a computing devicemay be provided with legal parking related data relevant to a specificlocation.

It will be appreciated that computer program instructions may includecomputer executable code. A variety of languages for expressing computerprogram instructions are possible, including, but not limited to, C,C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, assembly language, Lisp, and so on. Suchlanguages may include assembly languages, hardware descriptionlanguages, database programming languages, functional programminglanguages, imperative programming languages, and so on. In someembodiments, computer program instructions can be stored, compiled, orinterpreted to run on a computer, a programmable data processingapparatus, a heterogeneous combination of processors or processorarchitectures, and so on.

In some embodiments, a computer enables execution of computer programinstructions including multiple programs or threads. The multipleprograms or threads may be processed more or less simultaneously toenhance utilization of the processor and to facilitate substantiallysimultaneous functions. By way of implementation, any and all methods,program codes, program instructions, and the like described herein maybe implemented in one or more threads. The one or more threads can spawnother threads, which can themselves have assigned priorities associatedwith them. In some embodiments, a computer can process these threadsbased on priority or any other order based on instructions provided inthe program code.

Unless explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context, the verbs“execute” and “process” are used interchangeably to indicate execute,process, interpret, compile, assemble, link, load, any and allcombinations of the foregoing or the like. Therefore, embodiments thatexecute or process computer program instructions, computer-executablecode, or the like can suitably act upon the instructions or code in anyand all of the ways just described.

The invention may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that performparticular tasks or implement particular data types. The computerprogram and data may be fixed in any form (e.g., source code form,computer executable form, or an intermediate form) either permanently ortransitorily in a tangible storage medium, such as a semiconductormemory device (e.g., a RAM, ROM, PROM, EEPROM, or Flash-ProgrammableRAM), a magnetic memory device (e.g., a diskette or fixed hard disk), anoptical memory device (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD), a PC card (e.g., PCMCIAcard), or other memory device. The computer program and data may befixed in any form in a signal that is transmittable to a computer usingany of various communication technologies, including, but in no waylimited to, analog technologies, digital technologies, opticaltechnologies, wireless technologies, networking technologies, andinternetworking technologies. The computer program and data may bedistributed in any form as a removable storage medium with accompanyingprinted or electronic documentation (e.g., shrink wrapped software or amagnetic tape), preloaded with a computer system (e.g., on system ROM orfixed disk), or distributed from a server or electronic bulletin boardover the communication system. It is to be appreciated that any of thesoftware components of the inventive disclosure may, if desired, beimplemented in ROM (read-only memory) form.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure may be used by usersof different user types, where “users” can be members of the generalpublic and/or computer systems which include but are not limited to:professionals, civilians, vehicles, websites, robots, in-vehiclesystems, global positioning satellites (GPS), and/or other systems. Itis also intended that the inventive disclosure may be used not onlywithin an application of a computing device 132, which may includesmartphones, tablet computers, laptop computers, in-dash vehiclesystems, etc., but may also be enlarged to encompass other systems orservices which may process, utilize, and display the legal parkingrelated data, for example, contributions to the field of informationservices for online mapping companies and GPS manufacturers, smart phoneor mobile device manufacturers, wireless service providers, applicationcreators and developers, and mobile operating system developers anddistributors, automated vehicle systems such as self-driving vehicles,etc.

Referring first to FIG. 1, depicted is a schematic diagram illustratinga system for identifying potentially legal parking in accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure. System components incommunication with computing system 100 may include computing device132, WAN 126, web portals 128, and user engagement panel 134. Acombination of hardware and software preferably operates on anapplication of computing device 132 and computing system 100, such as acomputer, generally with one or more connections to wireless wide-areanetwork 126 (WAN) (e.g., the Internet). Computing system 100 mayinclude, for example, server 124 comprising one or more of thefollowing: central processing unit (CPU) 102, memory unit 104, database106, interface 108, output device 110, input device 112, (e.g., akeyboard, mouse, scanner, etc.), local area network (LAN) datatransmission controller 114, LAN interface 116 in communication with LAN117, network controller 118, which can be connected to PSTN (publicswitched telephone network), and internal bus 120. As shown, the systemmay be connected to a data storage device, for example, a hard diskcomprising database 106 via a link. Computing system 100 can include oneor more servers configured the same or similar to server 124 shown inthis depiction, or one or more servers configured in a different manner,which may include different hardware or software. For example, computingsystem 100 may comprise multiple servers hosted in multiple spaces suchas data centers or server farms.

Computing system 100 may be configured to communicate with a networkservice coordinated through communication device 122. Communicationdevice 122 may include any approach for communicating data over one ormore networks or to one or more peripheral devices. Communication device122 may include, but is not limited to, circuitry and control systemsfor providing wireless connections, wired connections, cellularconnections, data port connections, Bluetooth connections, or anycombination thereof and the device or means may include devices enabledto communicate using such communications approaches. One of ordinaryskill in the art would appreciate that there are numerous approaches forcommunications that may be utilized.

Server 124 and computing system 100 may also be communicatively linked,through communication device 122 and WAN 126, to peripheral devices suchas a computing device 132, which may be a device allowing a user tointeract with the computing system 100. Through computing device 132 andweb portal 128, the user can access a remotely or locally provided userengagement panel 134. Computing device 132 may be a handheld mobiledevice, an in-vehicle navigation system, or another device or systemsuch as a laptop computer, desktop computer, tablet, etc. Userengagement panel 134 according to an embodiment of the invention may bea discussion board that can be accessed through an interactive displayon computing device 132, which allows users to hold discussions relatingto parking, and which might include recommendations for finding legalparking, suggestions for disputing tickets, a way for users to assisteach other with meter fees, or refilling expiring parking meters, etc.

Turning to FIG. 2, shown is a schematic diagram illustrating theconfiguration of computing device 132 for enabling a user to interfacewith computing system 100 and for reporting parking violations, forreporting other information relating to potentially available legalparking locations, as well as receiving a notification with legalparking related data, all in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe inventive disclosure. Remote computing device 132 may be incommunication with all its components, tangible or intangible, and mayincorporate internal devices 200 and external devices 202. Remotecomputing device 132 may also include and utilize mobile communicationdevice 220 for receiving voice, text, and data for connecting to thecomputing system 100 such as over a WAN 126. A location identifier 204,such as a GPS receiver, may also be included in remote computing device132 for identification of a present location. The location identifier204 may determine the location of a remote computing device 132 indifferent ways, for example, through receiving location-based resources.One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that there arenumerous approaches for providing location identification andlocation-based services. In one example, location identifier 204 can beinstantiated through processing of received GPS data from location-basedor geo-aware resources of computing device 132. In addition, locationidentifier 204 can also receive GPS data from other applications orprograms that operate on computing device 132. For example, computingdevice 132 may communicate with one or more other applications using oneor more application program interfaces (APIs). The application can usethe location information to cause a user interface component toconfigure a user interface framework based on the location information.

Computing device 132 may also include one or more of processor 206,storage 208, input devices 210, output devices 212, user interface 214,clock mechanism 216 and/or accelerator/speedometer 218. Processor 206may be used for executing instructions, software, or program modules onthe computing device 132. Remote computing device 132 may also containstorage 208, such as random-access memory (RAM) or flash storage.Input/output (“I/O”) devices 210 may be used to connect computing device132 to other system implements, especially depending on the availablefunctionalities of computing device 132. For example, an in-vehiclenavigation system might not have a camera, while a mobile device mayhave a built-in camera. In this instance, a mobile device's camera maybe used as an input for the in-vehicle navigation system. Other I/Odevices 210 may include a scanner, a microphone, a speaker, etc. Remotecomputing device 132 may also include display 212, which may display anotification or other data to a user received from computing system 100.Display 212 may, for example, be an electronic touchscreen display suchas an LCD display, an LED display, or an active-matrix organic lightemitting diode (AMOLED) display. Computing device 132 may also utilizeinternal clock mechanism 216 to determine the time at any given momentduring its use. Accelerometer or speedometer 218 may also be incommunication with computing device 132, which may be used to measurespeed, acceleration, directional changes, etc. Also, user interface 214may be implemented where content is displayed based on other userselections and preferences.

One or more of these components of remote computing device 132 might becombined to provide user features that are specific to user selectionsand user locations, and/or real-time conditions to enable a user toreceive legal parking related information. These selections can bedisplayed to the user, and the user can use user interface 214 tointeract with information. For instance, user interface 214 cancorrespond to a program that is downloaded onto a smartphone or otherportable computer device such as a tablet computer or personal digitalassistant (PDA). A user can download and install the application onremote computing device 132 and register. An exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure may utilize pre-programmed features combined basedon certain protocols or methods of integration of basic components, suchas servers, databases 106, mobile end applications, web portals, networksettings, etc., where the applications could be applications written forANDROID, a mobile platform developed by Google and the Open HandsetAlliance, IOS, a mobile platform developed by Apple, Inc., WINDOWSPHONE, a mobile platform developed by Microsoft Corporation, etc.

A possible user interface 214 may include, but is not limited to, ahomepage user interface, access to user engagement panel 134, which maybe used for one or more users to share ideas about finding legalparking, a summary interface, a location user interface, database 106access interface, or a combination of any of the features described. Oneof ordinary skill in the art might appreciate that there are numeroususer interfaces that could be utilized or contemplated for use with anyappropriate user interface 214. External devices 202 may also beconnected to the remote computing device 132 through either a wired orwireless connection, and may be one or more devices that could provideadditional or enhanced functionalities to computing device 132, whetherit be a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone or an in-vehiclenavigation system or other computing device, etc. Computing system 100can retrieve a user's information and other data that is stored indatabase 106. In some implementations, database 106 can be storedremotely and user information can be retrieved from there.

Other integrated devices may include utilization of vehicle equipment,for example cameras, inertial sensor, gyroscope sensor, GPS sensor, andany other applicable equipment, etc. Utilization of this vehicleequipment may be used to obtain comprehensive real-time and historicalactivity information about the vehicle, for example its direction,speed, orientation and acceleration, etc. in order to issue anapplicable and accurate notification to the user. An exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure can, for instance, be integratedwith in-dash systems to enable full function within a vehicle. Thisintegration is not limited to in-dash systems and may also be integratedin the vehicle by original equipment manufacture or third-party add-onequipment that may be mounted within a vehicle. The inventive disclosureuses direct integration of the disclosed parking space informationsystem into the navigation and GPS in an onboard computer of originalequipment manufactured vehicles. In such embodiments, the disclosedarchitecture can be integrated directly into a vehicle's computersystem.

When integrated into an in-dash navigation system, the vehicle's displaymay be used to show a legal parking related notification in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure as describedabove. The in-dash integrated system embodiment can provide remoteupdates and communications to the user through an installed legalparking application on the user's computing device 132 to notify theuser for example, when the parking time limit is approaching itsexpiration, impending street cleaning or street cleaning which justended, or of other legal parking related data. The installed legalparking application can run on computing device 132 and utilizeresources which may include microprocessor, memory, GPS, wirelessconnection and display. The invention may be useful with respect toautomated vehicle systems, such as self-driving cars, where data can beintegrated in to the vehicle's navigation system and notifications canbe sent directly to the vehicle. Though self-driving vehicles do notrequire drivers, the vehicle itself is still subject to parkingviolations that may be issued to the owner of the vehicle. Legal parkingnotifications integrated with the automated vehicle's navigation systemmay help the owner of an autonomous vehicle to avoid parking violationsas the owner may not be present at the time the vehicle is in operationand in need of parking.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure may optionallyinclude a geographical information system (GIS) to capture, display, andotherwise analyze data. The GIS may integrate an electronic or digitalmap, for instance, as a layer (such as GOOGLE MAPS, which is anelectronic mapping service provided by Google, a subsidiary of AlphabetInc., etc.) to be viewed on computing device 132. With this integration,roadways may be displayed from a map database which presents theanalyzed data as to the location of potentially available legal parkingand route planning to a parking zone with a greater potential of findinglegal parking, where the options can be displayed to the user to helpplan his/her route accordingly, or see automatically generatedsuggestions about routes, etc. For example, the user can be given asuggestion of a potential route to a parking zone where there is moreavailable legal parking than in another area. Since parking locationsmay be occupied by vehicles of non-users and therefore might not beaccounted for, the suggested route may direct the user to a parking zonewith a greater number of available legal parking identified byregistered users. However, a user may have the option to select analternate route based on additional route criteria. For example, a usermay select a parking zone based on distance even though the closerparking zone has less available legal parking. The GIS may integratedifferent layers, and data points with similar attributes can then beisolated and output as a layer. That output layer could show instancesof certain data points that have similar attributes. Then, an inventoryof other data points such as meter parking, locations of bus stops,commercial vehicle parking, taxi lanes, bus lanes, bicycle lanes,emergency lanes, locations of parking garages/facilities, street parkinglocations, parking restrictions, locations of fire hydrants, etc., canbe gathered and applied through a GIS and output to the user's computingdevice 132 and visualized on a base map. This provides a way to usefullysort, access, and send the data to users of computing device 132.

The GIS might include certain hardware, which might be another computingdevice or secondary device attached to it that enables the GIS to befunctional, and software such as algorithms written using executableprogramming languages to store, analyze, and display geographical dataand information. The GIS can be used to process certain data such asparking locations, maps, etc. The GIS might be maintained by atechnician, or other qualified personnel, with knowledge of upkeepprocedures, especially those concerned with adjusting system functionsto what might be required of a GIS.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a system and methodfor generating and transmitting a notification relating to theidentification of legal parking, illegal parking, areas of availablelegal parking, and the like, in accordance with an exemplary embodimentof the inventive disclosure. In operation, remote computing device 132connects to the computing system 100 in order to transmit a notificationwhen relevant. A user may be provided with a visual and/or audionotification. Computing device 132 and/or location identifier 204 sendlocation-based services (LBS) data 302 to computing system 100. Whencertain conditions are met (e.g., the user shows parking intent ormanually requests parking information) computing system 100 can query304 data in database 106. The computing system 100 might use a user typeof the user (e.g., the user drives a Camry with commercial plates),which can be cross referenced with the location of the user (e.g.,approximate address, geolocation, etc.) and the time (e.g., time of day,week, month, season, etc.) and identify relevant data for generating anotification, and tailor it to the user's customizable preferences(e.g., how the user wants to be notified, when the user wants to benotified, how many times the user wants to receive a notification, atime the notification(s) is/are issued, a distance to an intendeddestination, an amount of time before a user reaches an intendeddestination, a form of the notification(s), a number of times thenotification(s) is/are requested, a content of the notification(s), anda location where the notification(s) is/are issued, etc.). Computingsystem 100 may periodically query 304 certain data sets in database 106to keep requests current or to look for new or different information indatabase 106. Alternatively, computing system 100 might access database106 using specific APIs, by subscription, or by this data being pushedas it is made available. During the process, computing device 132 mayconnect with internal devices 200 and external devices 202 in order tocommunicate with computing system 100 to relay data (i.e., time, date,location etc.), receive a notification, and process and display thatnotification to the user.

In an embodiment, the customizations may not be based on userpreferences but may be automated from collected data from the database.The system may use a customization based on a predetermined number orpercentage of users selecting a specific preference, or based onreasons, or based on randomization. For example, the system is using 75%as a predetermined percentage of users, so if 90% of users choose to bealerted one time for a specific location, then the system mayautomatically customize a one-time alert for that location. In anotherexample, a majority of users chose to receive recommendations at aspecific location, so the system automates recommendations for users atthat location. Thus, customizations may be discretionary and selected byusers, or may be automated by the system based on past user data. Thereceived data 306 from database 106 based on query 304 may be formattedat the computing system 100. The formatted data 308 can then betransmitted as notification 300, through communication device 122. Togenerate notification 300, computing system 100 may query 304 differentdata sets within database 106 (e.g., any historical citation informationcurrently available; the user's identified location and present time; orany administrative notices or temporary notices applicable to the usertype of that user, present location, and present time, etc.).Furthermore, computing system 100 can search for weather relatedinformation, where weather patterns or conditions could have an effecton parking rules and regulations.

Notification 300 can be configured to be integrated with an interactiveelectronic map API or displayed on an electronic screen. Notification300 that is specific for a commercial vehicle, for instance, mightinclude specifically relevant information for commercial vehicle usersin it. The information contained within notification 300 can be based onspecific data from the combination of data for commercial vehicles, asnotification 300 may be selectively issued based on the user's usertype, further based on type of vehicle and type of vehicle plate. Anotification may be short, conveying legal parking related dataapplicable to the location.

Computing system 100 may alert the user to potentially available legalparking locations by notifying the user through email, text message,phone call, phone alert, voice mail etc., automatically at the choice ofthe user who set this in advance in the settings. Notification 300 tothe user can include reasons for the availability or unavailability ofparking, such as if the legal parking is currently occupied or not.While referenced as “reasons,” one of ordinary skill in the art wouldappreciate that in practice this phrase could be described in numerousmanners, including, but not limited by phrases such as “cause,”“explanation,” or any other terms. No matter what term is used, the keypoint is that the term may be used herein to describe that the user isgiven an explanation as to why parking is unavailable or illegal at agiven location. In addition to reasons for legal parking availability,notifications may also provide recommendations for where the user mayfind available legal parking. For example, if a user is near a locationwhere prohibited parking time limits are about to expire, notification300 may recommend to the user that parking at that location might becomeavailable in a given amount of time. While referenced as“recommendation,” one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate thatin practice this phrase could be described in numerous manners,including, but not limited by phrases such as “suggestion,” “advice,” orany other terms. No matter what term is used, the key point is that theterm is herein to describe an alert issued to a user about availablelegal parking and/or illegal parking in order to secure a legallyavailable parking space while avoiding parking violations.

The system may display a comparison of parking rules applicable atdifferent jurisdictions. The comparison may be displayed in differentways, such as notification 300, through user engagement panel 134, or byany other format. The comparison is made based on the informationobtained from the user data provided from the user, such as driverlicense, driving history, preferences, etc. The system may use not onlythe driver license itself, but information associated with the driverlicense, such as the city, town, state, and authorities that issue theparking rules for the driver license jurisdiction, and which parkingrules apply in that jurisdiction. For example, the system may comparerules that apply at the current location with the rules of the statethat issued the user's driver license. A comparison of the relevantrules is necessary to notify users of the differences between the rulesof their current locations and those from where the user's driverlicense was issued. This allows the user to find potentially availablelegal parking locations in other jurisdictions, or to plan a route to aspecific location with more potentially available legal parkinglocations. This is important because parking rules may differ indifferent jurisdictions, for instance, local parking rules in one citymay not be the same as another city, which has its own parking rules. Itis important to identify which rules apply in which jurisdiction so asto provide efficient and accurate information about potentiallyavailable legal parking locations. A user may want to plan parkingarrangements in advance before traveling to a specific location. Thestored legal parking related data from those locations are summarized,compared, and analyzed to alert the user of potentially available legalparking locations, or of parking violations, based on the differentparking rules between the user's original location and the currentlocation determined by the user. The user may provide a specificlocation and view the potentially available legal parking at thatspecific location within a predetermined distance from the specificlocation. Or, the user may check the potentially available legal parkingand comparison of parking rules of any location at any time. The usermay select to view the potentially available legal parking, as well asthe comparison of parking, of a specific address, or more broadly, of aspecific town, city, jurisdiction, etc. In another scenario, a user mayselect and compare the parking rules of multiple other locations, forinstance, locations that are not related to the user's current locationor to the jurisdiction associated with the user's driver license. Thedifferences may then be displayed on the user's computing device 132.

The system may provide notification 300 automatically, or the user maymanually select when and where to receive notification 300. For example,the user may be able to view notification 300 information by pressing abutton on the screen of computing device 132 at the location to checkfor different parking rules. Or, the system may be set to automaticallyalert the user within a predetermined distance from a determinedlocation. A user may then rate the information on notification 300 inpart or in whole and also report notification 300 to the systemadministrator if the user believes there is inaccurate or falseinformation.

The system preferably records and stores accurate geolocation GPScoordinates (longitude and latitudes) of the user's computing device132, and notification 300 sent to a user can be customized and localizedto the user's location. Since the database 106 stores and analyzes RRLCfrom different municipalities and/or other authorities, geolocation andapplicable RRLC may be matched to send notification 300 according to theuser's user type and current location or a location indicated at auser's request. For example, location identifier 204 may transmit thelocation of computing device 132 to place the user within a particularset of jurisdictions. This function may be useful for a user who drivesacross local, county, state or country lines and is unfamiliar with theRRLC from different cities, counties, states, countries, etc. Database106 may have the user's driver license information, as the user mayenter and store the information of the driver license with the state orcountry who issued the driver license when registering a profile. Usingthe location from where the user's driver license was issued with auser's current location data, computing system 100 may send anotification for different rules or a summary of different parking rulesto the user according to the location as it changes. The user may pressa button on the display of computing device 132 to view the summary ofthe different parking rules when comparing the location of the entitythat issued the user's driver license with the user's current location.

The system may also be integrated with third-party weather APIs toretrieve historical weather information for general or specific parkingzones to predict future parking situations where weather may have animpact on legal parking availability based on indications of increasedissuance of parking violations during certain weather conditions. Forexample, if computing system 100 detects through a weather API anidentified location that the user is looking for available parking in alocation subject to any expected snowfall or flooding, it may comparethis information to the historical legal parking related data withindatabase 106 to find out if there may be any weather-related parkingrestrictions and increasing number of parking violations in the zonewhich may be applicable. The user may receive a notification when theweather forecast is similar to situations from historical data thatreflect an increase in the number of violations for a certain area dueto the same weather conditions. For example, the historical data for acertain location showed an increase in parking violations when there issnowfall, such as an increase in parking violations as a result of thesnow covering up a fire hydrant, leading drivers to believe they canpark in the location since they cannot see the fire hydrant.

A user may customize notifications 300 in accordance with his/herpreferences. Thus, in addition to having notification 300 issue on thebasis of the data type corresponding to at least the user type that theuser belongs to, the user can optionally specify further what he/shedoes or does not want to be notified about, which may result inprecluding a single notification or a whole category of notifications.The notification preferences may include, but are not limited totime(s), location(s), distance to an intended destination, time beforean intended destination, form or format of the notification(s), contentof the notification(s), number of times the notification(s) is/arerequested, a time the notification(s) is/are issued, an amount of timebefore a user reaches an intended destination, and a location where thenotification(s) is/are issued, etc. As to time(s), a user may wantnotifications on nights and weekends while being turned off duringbusiness hours or can make other customizations to limit notificationsto certain times. As to location(s), a user who often parks in the samearea each day could specify that notification 300 relevant to thatparking location might not need to be displayed, as the user may befamiliar with the rules. As to distance to an intended destination, auser may predetermine a distance to an intended destination at whichhe/she would like to start receiving notifications. As to time before anintended destination, a user may predetermine an amount of time beforean intended destination that he/she would like to start receivingnotifications. As to format, a user may want to receive notifications inthe form of text, image, audio, video, etc. or a combination of any. Asto content, a user can specify the type of information he/she would liketo see in a notification 300. For example, a user may specify thathe/she does not wish to see any image of a sign or signage, insteadopting to simply view a short description of that sign or signage. As tonumber of times, a user may also set the number of notifications theuser would like to receive. For example, a user may want to receive aninquiry or notification once or twice, or the user might not want toreceive any notification, etc. If the user does not respond tonotification 300, computing system 100 may stop sending notification 300after it repeats for the number of instances set by the user. Wholecategories of notifications 300 or specific parts of each notification300 may be able to be turned off, too. For example, a user might notfeel the need to see notification 300 that serves as a reminder to paymeter fees or any other legal parking related data that the user feelsto be well informed about. However, these are only examples and notintended to limit in any way the time customization that the user canspecify with regards to which notification 300 is issued, nor is itintended to limit what information does get incorporated into database106.

As seen in FIG. 4A, a schematic diagram illustrating the content andorganization of database 106 in accordance with an exemplary embodimentof the inventive disclosure, the system may use database 106 or a set ofdatabases (or data storage media) disposed on a hard disk, one or morehard disks, or other storage means. The information in database 106 maybe stored in a non-relational or unstructured manner. One of ordinaryskill in the art may appreciate that there are numerous methods forproviding, storing, and organizing data in database 106 or other datastorage media. Additionally, there may be at least one backup databasethat may back up a primary database periodically in case of data loss inthe primary database. While referenced as a “database,” one of ordinaryskill in the art might appreciate that in practice this could beimplemented in numerous manners, including but not limited to a datastorage medium, whether structured or unstructured, relational, orotherwise. One of ordinary skill in the art would also appreciate thatthere are numerous methods of providing databases and data storage mediafor the organization and retrieval of specific information, contemplatedfor use with any appropriate database 106 or other storage means.Further, as stated, the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein arecontemplated for use with one type of data processed and storedcorresponding to one type of user, though certain embodiments of theinventive disclosure may incorporate multiple types of datacorresponding to multiple types of users, or one type of datacorresponding to multiple types of users, or multiple types of datacorresponding to one type of user.

Legal parking related data can be categorized in database 106 accordingto different data types or data sets. For example, drivers ofnon-commercial vehicles may receive tickets for parking in commercialvehicle only standing zones, which only permit commercial vehicles toload and unload cargo. Therefore, database 106 may store a record ofcitations that may include citation data from non-commercial vehicles404, 406 and citation data from commercial vehicles 412, 414, which maybe labeled and sorted accordingly. Legal parking related data based onvehicle type may show different types of vehicles which commit theparking violations. Based on this organization, different types of usersmay then be issued a notification with the type of data that correspondto at least their user types. A notification may be made more accurate,since citations can be grouped in separate categories depending on thetype of vehicle and types of vehicle plate, which may be included incommercial vehicles, non-commercial vehicles, types of vehicles, ortypes of vehicle plates.

User type is intended to cover every type of vehicle that may be subjectto or restricted by parking regulations under various legal parkingregimes. User types may be categorized into any one or more of thefollowing: commercial vehicle user types, non-commercial vehicle usertypes, user types based on type of vehicle, user types based on type ofvehicle plate, or any other user type. For example, trucks and taxis maybe classified differently under the law and each may have its owndistinct vehicle plate with parking rules affecting each type of vehicledifferently. Therefore, a specific user type may be selected to accesslegal parking data that is corresponding only to that user type whileprecluding legal parking data for all other user types. Optionally, auser may select more than one user type to access legal parking datarelated to only the selected user type. Therefore, a user can receivenotifications or updates based on data corresponding to each user typethat has been selected, or for just one user type.

Database 106 may contain several data categories or groupings thatestablish data sets, including but not limited to non-commercial vehicledata 400, commercial vehicle data 402, user engagement panel data 420,user data 432, weather data 434, commercial/non-commercial parking data436, public/private parking data 438, map and route data 442, parkingsign or signage data 444, administrative data 446, and parkingavailability data 447. Non-commercial vehicle data 400 may furtherinclude non-commercial vehicle historical citations 404 andnon-commercial vehicle real time citations 406, where the real time andhistorical sections of database 106 may be independent or synchronizedin order to retrieve information from both sections at the same time.All historical legal parking related data in database 106 may also becorrected, updated, supplemented or otherwise modified by real-timelegal parking related data or legal parking related data that had as ofyet been unknown or unavailable. Real-time legal parking related data isconsidered to be real-time when one or more users share legal parkingrelated data immediately. “Immediately” can be within a predeterminedperiod of time close to the present time, such as fifteen minutes fromreceiving the parking violation or five minutes after street-cleaning iscomplete, or it may be virtually instantaneous with the present time. Ifthe data does not meet requirements to be considered real-time data,then the data is considered historical data, but it may be used toupdate other historical legal parking related data already existing indatabase 106.

Non-commercial vehicles data 400 may further include rules andabbreviations data (and their common meanings) relating tonon-commercial vehicles 408 as used by law enforcement. On a ticket,abbreviations may appear in the area where the officer specifies theviolation and/or location of the violation. Abbreviations may beprocessed and stored in database 106 by gathering data from publiclyavailable sources to provide the most accurate and up-to-date meanings.The user may be able to check the language to automatically change theabbreviations to plain-language meanings according to location whentyping them into computing device 132. The function may also be usedwhen the user reports a ticket that contains abbreviations. For example,a user may receive a ticket for parking a vehicle in violation of thelaw at a certain location and intends to report it. The ticket violationmay state, the “Place of Occurrence” is “E/S Main St. Oft N/of SecondAve.” The user may, for example, type the abbreviated language into thecomputing device 132 when reporting, and then computing system 100 mayautomatically change the abbreviations to plain and easilyunderstandable explanations and then convert the address into ageolocation. For example, tickets with confusing abbreviations, “E/SMain St. Om N/of Second Ave.” would be changed to “East side of MainStreet zero meters North of Second Avenue” and then used to create theaccurate geolocation through a third party's geolocation API to beentered into database 106. This geolocation may then be precluded forpurposes of identifying potentially available legal parking for a userat a relevant time, because a user has received a ticket for parkingillegally. Non-commercial vehicles data 400 may also include datarelating to non-commercial vehicle types and non-commercial vehicleplate types 410, which can be stored in database 106 as such. This mayinclude types of vehicles that fit the non-commercial vehicle type orhave non-commercial vehicle plates for users, so that the users can begrouped properly by data type.

Database 106 can also store commercial vehicle data 402. This data setmay include commercial vehicle historical citations 412, including pastcitations issued to commercial vehicles, commercial vehicle real-timecitations 414, including real-time citations just issued to commercialvehicles, rules and abbreviations data of commercial vehicles 416,including abbreviations and rules that apply to commercial vehicleparking citations, and commercial vehicle types and commercial vehicleplate types 418, which include types of vehicles and types of platesassociated with commercial vehicles. With respect to the type of vehicleor type of vehicle plate, the data type might correspond to at least thetype of vehicle or type of vehicle plate. For example, trucks and taxismay each bear a different type of vehicle plate specialized for theirrespective industry, although they may both be classified as commercialvehicles, and each of these user types can receive data corresponding toat least a user type while precluding data for all other vehicle types.In other words, data corresponding to a particular user type, may befocused to that user type, whether based on type of vehicle or vehicleplate, or other specification, especially in a scenario where a parkingprohibition or parking availability is based on the vehicle (e.g.,commercial vehicle parking only).

Database 106 may also include user engagement panel data 420, which mayinclude any information or data submitted by one or more users usinguser engagement panel 134. This user engagement panel data 420 mayinclude one or more of the following: submitted redesigns of parkingsign/signage 422 (e.g., to make the parking sign or signage clearer),citations contributed by users 424, which might include the discussionand/or comments related to that contribution, parking citation avoidancesuggestions 426 that can be collected from users, which can includesuggestions for a specific location or generally, disputerecommendations 428 from users who might give advice to others oneffectively disputing parking tickets, and submission ratings 430 foruser engagement panel data 420. Ratings can be used as a way to sort orweight information within user engagement panel 134 so that users mightbe able to see the most accurate or helpful information, and so thatusers who contribute meaningfully for doing so can be rewarded for theircontributions.

Database 106 can also include user data 432 (i.e., information about theusers), which can include where the user parks or has parked, andpossible user registration information, such as the user type selectedby the user, etc. A user may be asked to register with the service byproviding driver license pertinent information such as name, type ofvehicle plate, type of vehicle, the state or country issuing the driverlicense, and an email address to create a user ID for each user of theapplication. User IDs may be used for the purposes of tracking reportsand ratings made by each user. Credit card and/or debit card informationmay also be requested for subscriber fees for certain services providedfor a certified user. A registered user may be allowed to use variousfeatures of the application which include but are not limited toreporting data and rating data. The subscriber fees collected may alsodirectly or indirectly fund the monetary or non-monetary rewardsimplemented as an incentive for providing legal parking related data,including but not limited to received parking tickets. The system mayinclude a user profile database 106 configured to store user informationand associations between each user and the user's remote computingdevice 132 after registering. Once registered, a user may set and changethe information in their user profiles, if desired. Settings that mayrequire a user's input or preference may be subsequently changed by theuser within the settings (e.g., on/off). For example, the user maychange the type of vehicle the user is currently driving. Accordingly,this is also applicable to the type of plate associated with thevehicle. This can be included and stored with user data 432.

Weather data 434 may also be stored in database 106, which might relateto past weather patterns and how they affect parking availability andthe legality of potential parking places. For example, in certain badweather situations rules regarding metered parking, legal parking timewindows and limits, etc. might not be in effect.

Database 106 can also store data relating to commercial/non-commercialparking 436, and public/private parking 438, all of which can includealternative parking locations, government/public, commercial parkinggarages/facilities, or private garages/facilities where the user canlegally park. Alternative lots listed with price and location can beused if a user would like to know in a notification a nearby parkinggarage, price, drive time to it, how full the garage or a parking lot isor how full certain sections or levels of the garage are, etc. Theseparking options may be listed with information from third parties,whether government or public parking, commercial parking garages orfacilities, or private parking garages or facilities, which may haveregistered their parking garage information with computing system 100(i.e., name, address, price, hours of operation, availability, andheight, size, or weight restrictions, if any), and that information canbe stored in database 106 for reference. By having parking garages orfacilities register information with the system, the garages/facilitiescan also indicate in real-time whether parking is available currently orif the garage is full so computing system 100 may indicate availabilitywhen notifying the user, where garage capacity and/or occupancy can beshown through a format that displays how full a garage might be. If theparking garage is full, then it may not be displayed as an availableoption. Additionally, when the user is viewing the list of alternativeparking options, the user may press on the name of the garage wherebythe mobile application may automatically start routing the user from theuser's current location to the parking garage. In addition, this can bealso done with surface lots or other aboveground parking, etc.Furthermore, a user can register and submit that parking in a garagemight be full, a submission which can be subject to ratings by otherusers.

Users may also be allowed to pay for parking directly on a remotecomputing device 132 if available through a web portal or a third-partyAPI that connects to the applicable parking garages' or facilities'payment systems and/or website. Commercial/non-commercial parking 436can include surface lots which might be used by patrons of a business oremployees at a company which makes a certain amount of parkingavailable. Public/private parking 438 can also include parking spacesthat individuals might list and offer for free or for a certain price.These types of parking spaces might be made available for special eventsor at any time. Similarly, map and route data 442 can be stored in thedatabase 106. Map and route data 442 might additionally be stored in anindividual map database or within a general database, where map androute data 442 can be queried for ETA information through crossreference with traffic conditions, road density, etc.

Database 106 may also include parking sign/signage data 444, forexample, parking sign or signage location information and parking signor signage images from the websites of various government sources.Parking signs that apply to a user's current location or the location ofa vehicle may be automatically displayed for the user on computingdevice 132 after a user temporarily stops or parks in a location. Insome embodiments, applicable parking signs can be displayed through theuser engagement panel and can be rated by the user, or applicableparking signs can be displayed to the user through one or morenotifications. Accordingly, a user might not have to physically leavethe vehicle to spend time walking to the sign to figure out if parkingis allowed, putting them at risk of receiving a ticket during this time.In addition, a concise, easy-to-understand description of the parkingrules indicated on the sign may be provided to the user so as to avoidany misunderstanding of the sign, potentially with a translation intoanother language or explanation in plain language.

Database 106 may also include rules and administrative data 446 as wellas user data 432. Administrative data 446 may include, but is notlimited to, data related to dispute resolution, quality control, etc.Historical data is kept track of partly by assigning a tracking numberor service ID number that would be assigned to ticketing or relatedinformation to help refer back to it if it comes into question.Information that could be held within this identification may beinformation, such as the reason a ticket may have been issued, who orwhat agency issued it and where it took place, such as address-specificinformation including house or building number, zip code, borough, city,or state, how much the fine is and how the payment for the service tookplace if it did.

In an alternative embodiment of database 106 in accordance with theinventive disclosure, FIG. 4B shows that database 106 may containseveral data categories or groupings that establish data sets, includingbut not limited to non-commercial vehicle data 400, commercial vehicledata 402, data based on type of vehicle 448, data based on type ofvehicle plate 456, user engagement panel data 420, user data 432,weather data 434, commercial/non-commercial parking data 436,public/private parking data 438, map and route data 442, parking sign orsignage data 444, administrative data 446, and parking availability data447. Non-commercial vehicle data 400 may further include non-commercialvehicle historical citations 404, non-commercial vehicle real timecitations 406, and rules and abbreviations data of non-commercialvehicles 408. Similarly, commercial vehicle data 402 may further includecommercial vehicle historical citations 412, commercial vehiclereal-time citations 414, and rules and abbreviations data of commercialvehicles 416. Data based on type of vehicle 448 may further includehistorical citations based on type of vehicle 450, real-time citationsbased on type of vehicle 452, and rules and abbreviations data based ontype of vehicle 454. Data based on type of vehicle plate may furtherinclude historical citations based on type of vehicle plate 458,real-time citations based on type of vehicle plate 460, and rules andabbreviations data based on type of vehicle plate 462. User engagementpanel data 420 may further include redesign of parking signage data 422,contributed citations data 424, citation avoidance suggestions 426,dispute recommendations 428, and submission ratings 430. Thisorganization of data in the database 106 allows for data based on typeof vehicle 448 as well as for data based on type of vehicle plate 456 tobe its own data set within database 106.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure may promotetransparency and accuracy of legal parking related data in database 106gathered from various sources by utilizing a platform for a user toaccess the data in database 106 in a user-friendly applicationinterface. To build database 106, raw legal parking related data, whichmay include but is not limited to parking violation citation data, maybe obtained from various sources, uploaded, and formatted to includerelevant data used for running analysis and providing notifications.This parking violation citation data may be crowdsourced and maycomprise real-time or historical data. The uploaded legal parkingrelated data may then be split into two sets of data for cleaning (i.e.,updating, correcting, supplementing or otherwise modifying). The firstset of data may be legal parking related data which is already verifiedas to having all the necessary information in the right format, whilethe second set of data may be legal parking related data that needs tobe reformatted to include all the necessary information.

Some of the historical legal parking related data may be provided aspublic open data from the government agencies and may also be availablethrough a request for records, if not available through publicgovernment websites. Legal parking related data, such as parkingviolation related data, may also be obtained by crawling (e.g.,systematic internet browsing) or otherwise connecting to relevantgovernment or law enforcement websites that store legal parking relateddata for a specific user. However, in order to access such data, priorauthorization may need to be obtained from the user to search for thatuser's legal parking related data, such as issued parking violationcitations. Based on that, computing system 100 might send a notificationto the user which provides a warning for pending or unpaid parkingviolation citations. With the authorization from the user, theinformation from these citations may be input as data into database 106to further build the updated comprehensive database 106 to help identifypotentially available legal parking. Although locations identified insuch government released legal parking related data might not be asaccurate as geolocation coordinates, such data is nevertheless useful.And, to better identify locations from government released data, theselocations may be transformed to geolocation coordinates, through anyqualified third-party software that provides a location geocodingservice for latitude and longitude coordinates before the citationlocation data is input into database 106.

Computing system 100 or the system administrator may additionally oralternatively obtain legal parking related data through the input from auser and/or interested individuals as well as private entities, forexample, transportation companies, or any other organizations thatspecialize in transportation who may have access to issued parkingviolation citations or other legal parking related data. Database 106may utilize a collection method for the collection of legal parkingrelated data. Legal parking related data may be collected and summarizedmanually, for example, by a system administrator or system employee, orautomatically, for example, by an artificial intelligence algorithm, tocorrect, update, and supplement database 106.

It is to be understood by one skilled in the art that database 106updates and syncs dynamically whenever there are changes or updates indata blocks. Server 124 and database 106 may dynamically update the datato reflect the latest changes. Any backup database 106 related todatabase 106 may also change accordingly to also reflect the latestchanges. Such information may be organized or structured in a mannerallowing for effective sorting and retrieval.

A user may access historical records, may explore database 106, and mayretrieve related data by using a search function or other means. Eachtime an input or request from a user who wants to see relatedinformation is made, a safe access channel with database 106 may beopened and computing system 100 may send out the query sentences throughthe access channel to database 106 management module. If database 106 isa relational database, then the data tables may have one kind ofrelationships, such as one-to-many relationships, many-to-manyrelationships and one-to-one relationships with other data table(s).Based on the relationships between data tables, the database managementmodule follows the query sentences and finds the specific data table(s)by using ID(s), table names and columns names of the tables with orwithout joining two or more data tables together. If database 106 is anon-relational database, instead of data tables, the data may be storedin key-value pairs, then the database management module follows thequery sentences and finds the specific data by using keys that querysentences provide. Whether a relational or non-relational database isused, after the database management module retrieves the targeted data,computing system 100 may send a search result back to the server throughthe secured access channel. Then the secured channel is closed until thenext time it is opened. The relevant data that has been organized withindatabase 106 may thus be retrieved.

The raw legal parking related data entered, processed, stored, andanalyzed may include but is not limited to legal parking related data,parking violation related data, parking sign or signage information,alternative parking data, parking availability or unavailability data,parking availability data, street cleaning data, and parking meter data.Parking violation related data may include parking rules andregulations, type of violation, the causes or reasons for the violation,the name of a law enforcement officer who issued the ticket, lawenforcement officer comments on the ticket, registration state, platetype, vehicle type, issue date, violation code, violation statutorycode, issuing agency, violation time, house number; street name, lawsection, subdivision, days parking in effect, from hours in effect, tohours in effect, violation description, any other relevant factors,and/or other legal parking related data from database 106, etc.

Reasons for parking ticket violations may include but are not limitedto: standing in a no standing zone, where it is prohibited to wait orstop to load or unload packages or merchandise at curbside and onlyallows for stopping to expeditiously drop off or pick up passengers;stopping in a no stopping zone, where it is prohibited to wait, stop toload or unload packages or merchandise or drop off or pick uppassengers, parking tickets related to blocking areas, such as parkingin front of or blocking an entrance, exit, or crosswalk, as well asblocking a mailbox, parking within a prohibited zone based on a distancefrom a bus stop or fire hydrant; parking too close to a railroadcrossing, parking restrictions based on timing such as holiday, paraderoute, or other special event parking that only applies selectively, orparking prohibitions that relate to double parking, whether for acertain amount of time or any time at all. Some parking prohibitionsrelate to a revolving schedule, such as street cleaning parkingprohibitions, which happen on given days of the week between twodifferent times. Prohibitions can also relate to user oversights, suchas remaining parked after a time expiration. Parking tickets can alsorelate to parking within a zone or area that is restricted to certaintypes of vehicles or people, such as parking in a handicapped space orwithin handicapped zone or in a bike lane, in addition to parking in aprivate parking zone or a zone with a required permit. Furthermore,parking tickets can relate to prohibitions or limitation for parking forcertain for certain kinds of types of vehicles, such as motorcycle-onlyparking or parking a bicycle in areas banning bicycle parking. Inaddition, there may be selective zones that have different penaltiesassociated with them, such as parking in a tow-away zone. Thus, parkingviolation related data may be mined for identifying a potential parkingviolation applicable directly or by inference at a specific location andfor precluding illegal parking locations.

Referring next to FIG. 5A, shown is a flowchart illustrating an approachfor obtaining and processing parking occupancy, availability, orunavailability related data as part of potentially available legalparking related data in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure. For purposes of identifying potentially availablelegal parking locations, in addition to precluding illegal parkinglocations, parking locations which are identified to be legal butcurrently occupied are precluded from identification as potentiallyavailable legal parking locations as well. Thus, once parking intent isidentified (Step 502), the system determines whether there is manualinput, i.e. by pressing a button on the computing device, that the useris parked (Decision 504). If there is manual input that the user isparked, the system then records the location, or parking space, asunavailable (Step 512). Alternatively, if there is no manual input thesystem may automatically track the user's speed and location (Step 506)to determine whether the user is idle (Decision 508). If, however, theuser is determined to still be moving, then the user is determined tonot be parked (Step 510), at which point the system continues trackingthe user's speed and location. If the user is determined to be idlebased on the user's traveling speed going down to no movement, thesystem then determines whether the user has been idle for apredetermined period of time (Decision 512). If so, the systemrecognizes this as automatic detection that the user is parked (Step514) or at least that the location is not available and records theparking location as unavailable (Step 516). If not, and the user'stravelling speed has gone down to no movement for less than thepredetermined period of time, the user is determined to not be parked(Step 510). For example, this may be the case if the user is brieflywaiting at a traffic signal.

When the user leaves the space he/she is occupying, a leaving intent ofthat parked user is identified (e.g. automatically through leavingintent detection or manually input by the user), the parkingavailability or unavailability data, which may include data regardingthe occupancy status of a parking location, may be updated to reflectthat the location is now available for parking. Essentially, the moreregistered users including, but not limited to, drivers, motorcyclists,cyclists, and automated vehicles, utilize the invention, the morecomprehensive and accurate the data in the database might be, andtherefore more data can be used in identifying potentially availablelegal parking locations. As a result, notifications of potentiallyavailable parking locations can be more accurate. By recording one ormore locations where users are currently parked in addition toidentifying illegal parking locations, the system can more effectivelynotify users of potentially available legal parking.

As a result, these parking locations, whether occupied, illegal, orpotentially available and legal can be displayed to the user using, forexample, different formats such that the user can tell what may be anillegal parking location, an occupied parking location, or a potentiallyavailable parking location. If the user wants the computing system toidentify all parking locations, the computing system might employ threedifferent formats, such as three different colors or shapes, to clearlyseparate the three groups of parking locations from each other. However,since not all parking locations identified by the computing system aspotentially available might indeed be available, at least due to thefact that not all drivers may be registered with the system, the usermight prefer the computing system to identify only occupied and illegalparking location. In this case, the computing system may only employ twodifferent formats. It is possible that the user may wish to use thesystem for the sole purpose of identifying occupied parking locations,in which case only one format might be needed. This may be through anotification or on an electronic map display, for example. Further, anotification may include reasons for the intended destination not havinglegal parking, such as legal parking locations are occupied, parkinglocations are illegal for the user type the user belongs to, etc. Thesereasons may factor into route planning for the user. Users may beconcerned with parking locations that are illegal and are occupied orunavailable. In some situations, users may only be concerned withoccupied parking locations and only want to receive legal parkingrelated data about parking locations that are occupied. Or, users mayonly be concerned with illegal parking locations and only want toreceive legal parking related data about parking locations that areillegal.

Referring next to FIG. 5B, shown is a flowchart illustrating an approachfor obtaining and processing parking occupancy, availability, orunavailability related data as part of potentially available legalparking related data in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure. For purposes of identifying potentially availablelegal parking locations, in addition to precluding illegal parkinglocations, parking locations identified as being legal but currentlyoccupied are also precluded from identification as potentially availablelegal parking locations. Thus, once leaving intent is identified (Step520), the system determines whether there is manual input, i.e., bypressing a button on the computing device, that the user has left(Decision 522). If there is manual input that the user has left, thesystem then records the location, or parking space, as available (Step532). Alternatively, if there is no manual input the system tracks theuser's speed and location (Step 524) to determine whether the user isidle (Decision 526). If, however, the user is determined to still beidle, then the user is determined to not be leaving (Step 528), at whichpoint the system continues tracking the user's speed and location. Ifthe user is determined to no longer be idle based on the speed of theuser's traveling speed, the system recognizes this as automaticdetection that the user is leaving (Step 530) or at least that thelocation is now or may become available and records the parking locationas available or potentially available (Step 532).

The system may recognize at least one of the following four user types:commercial vehicle user type, non-commercial vehicle user type, a usertype based on type of vehicle, a user type based on type of vehicleplate, or any other user type. A person of ordinary skill in the artwould appreciate that the system may recognize only one user type at anytime, all user types at any time, or any combination of the user typesat any time. Since different RRLC may apply differently to differentusers depending on a user type resulting in different types of parkingviolations, a user who indicates in the user's profile that he/shedrives a commercial vehicle may be automatically marked in the categoryfor only commercial vehicles; whereas a user who indicates in the user'sprofile that he/she drives a non-commercial vehicle may be automaticallymarked in the category for only non-commercial vehicles. Additionally,users may differ based on a type of vehicle they are driving. Types ofvehicle may include, but are not limited to, tractor-trailers, trucks,buses, taxis, and limousines, etc. An even further differentiation ofusers is based on type of vehicle plate. For example, two users bothdriving Toyota Camry's may nevertheless belong to two different usertypes based on the fact that one of them drives a Toyota Camry that hasa taxi license plate. While referenced as “user type,” one or ordinaryskill in the art would appreciate that in practice a user may choose toselect one or more or any combination of user types.

In order to accommodate users of different user types, i.e., toeffectively assist every user in finding potentially available legalparking, the system provides for selective notification of users, thatis based on at least the data type corresponding to at least the usertype that the user belongs to. Accordingly, the system may recognize atleast one of the following four data types of legal parking related datain the database: commercial vehicle legal parking related data,non-commercial vehicle legal parking related data, legal parking relateddata based on type of vehicle, and legal parking related data based ontype of vehicle plate, or any other type of data. The data in thedatabase may also be categorized according to the issuing agency of theparking violation citations. A person of ordinary skill in the art wouldappreciate that the system may recognize only one data type at any time,all data types at any time, or any combination of data types at anytime. To notify a user of potentially available legal parking, thesystem may pair the data type with at least the corresponding user type.For example, commercial vehicle legal parking related data wouldcorrespond to at least commercial vehicle user type. Since some legalparking related data may apply to more than one user type, anotification with that same legal parking related data may be sent toall applicable user types. However, if any of the legal parking relateddata applies to only a single user type, for example a taxi, that datamay then be isolated for notifications of only taxi users, whileprecluding all other user types. In the case that a user selects morethan one user type, the system may utilize the database to retrieve dataof the data type corresponding to each of the selected user types, sothat all applicable data may be made available to that user.

The system may include self-driving and self-parking technology. Thistechnology may be integrated within the autonomous car sensors, whichmeasure the distance from the car to obstacles, and within the camerasthat detect traffic objects like lights and road signs, and helprecognize moving objects like other vehicles, pedestrians, andbicyclists. Although self-driving cars might not have a need to parkbecause they can vacate a space when needed, for example to minimize thenumber of idling or double-parked vehicles during times of high traffic,self-driving cars may be integrated with a comprehensive system foridentifying potentially available legal parking as provided by theinventive disclosure.

The system may be configured to integrate algorithms to detect duplicatedata. If the tickets issued on dates and times match those in database106, they may be labeled as duplicate data and automatically removedfrom the data set. However, tickets issued on dates and times notincluded in database 106 may be added to database 106, and notificationsmay be updated to properly reflect added data to then properly alert auser with updated information.

Referring now to FIG. 6, shown is a schematic diagram illustrating anapproach for sending a notification to a user in accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure. Computing system 100may determine when the user shows parking intent through identifyingspeed and location, or through an actual request. As depicted, computingsystem 100 may provide the user with a notification of potential parkingviolations at a time when vehicle 600 (i.e., having remote computingdevice 132 located in it) is within a predetermined radius “r” 602 of adestination. The destination may, for example, be a desired location orregion the user wishes to park or may be a determined location havingavailable legal parking. The area which is established by this radius602 is referred to herein as impact zone 604. When computing system 100detects parking intent of the user by identifying the current speed andlocation of vehicle 600, or otherwise, computing system 100 may querydatabase 106 for the legal parking related data and parking rules datastored in database 106, and then generate a notification as disclosed,for example, in FIG. 3.

The location of each individual user may be recorded while driving,along with the user's speed, in which a slow speed (e.g., 1-5 km/h), maybe indicative of the intent to park within predetermined radius 602 ofthe intended destination as preset by the user. Based on the user'slocation and speed, an inquiry may be sent which asks for example,“Parking?” If the user chooses “Yes” then any potentially availablelegal parking locations within predetermined radius 602 of a destinationmay be identified. Alternatively, the user may proactively indicate tocomputing system 100 that he/she is looking for parking or to startlooking when he/she is within a certain distance of the desireddestination, as well as indicate the desired location for such parking.Predetermined radius 602 may be preset by the user to be a certaindistance, because a user may prefer predetermined radius 602, say, of orwithin 150 meters from a destination, whereas another user may preferpredetermined radius 602 of at least 300 meters. If a user does notpreset this, there may be default settings for predetermined radius 602,which may vary depending on the location. For example, a default settingfor predetermined radius 602 may depend on the city in which a user islocated. Since a road map may be integrated in database 106, if thevehicle slows down or stops in the middle of the road due to traffic orother reasons, or is too far from the intended destination, computingsystem 100 may recognize such location through the geolocation GPScoordinates and speed data and may automatically know to not send aparking intent notification, since parking is not allowed in the middleof the road.

A notification may be sent regarding alternate-side of the streetparking, as historically determined by authorities, for streets that donot allow parking during certain times due to government street cleaningservices, which, for example, may be applicable for only one half anhour (e.g., 9 AM-9:30 AM). The street cleaning parking restrictionsoften cause problems and are a disruption to one's schedule, as theytypically are of a limited (e.g., 30 minutes) duration on the sign butmay in actuality take only a few minutes for the street cleaning vehicleto clean a street. Computing system 100 may also inform users oftemporary changes in alternate-side parking rules (e.g., when alternateparking rules are suspended to severe weather conditions, emergencies,holidays, etc.). Computing system 100 can be connected with remotecomputing device 132 to provide the user with a notification remindingthe user to move a vehicle due to street cleaning rules that may be ineffect soon. The user may set up and/or adjust one or more differentadvance reminder alerts with varying lengths of time. The alert mayremain in effect until the user indicates they have seen the alertand/or moved their vehicle. The user may turn these alerts on or off inthe settings of a mobile application. The system of remote computingdevice 132 might have information on the exact location of where theuser may have parked, since the user may press a button on the displayof the screen of their mobile communications device after parking tolock in and record the location as occupied with the system, or thelocation can be recorded by the system automatically, using locationidentifier 204.

Also, government street cleaning regulations may be tracked. Normally, avehicle would not be able to park during the time frame designated forstreet cleaning. However, after the street cleaning has been completed,a vehicle may park on that street, despite a 30-minute time frame. Tomaximize parking location efficiency, the system may notify users inaccordance to when the street cleaning starts and finishes. This streetcleaning information might come from crowdsourcing. Additionally, thesystem administrator may work in cooperation with municipalities orstreet cleaning companies to obtain this data. For an even more completelogging of street cleaning times, the administrator may hire an employeeor a third-party company for the purpose of driving a vehicle andfollowing the street cleaning vehicles around to provide the mostup-to-date information. This may ensure that users are able to utilizethese parking spaces as soon as possible, and do not have to wait forthe 30-minute time frame. Additionally, computing system 100 may informusers of temporary changes in alternate-side of the street parkingrules, e.g., when alternate side of the street parking rules aresuspended due to severe weather conditions, emergencies, holidays, etc.Computing system 100 may issue a notification to the user remindinghim/her to move a vehicle due to street cleaning rules. The user may setup and/or adjust one or more different advance reminder alerts withvarying lengths of time depending on the particular rule in effect. Thealert may remain in effect until the user acknowledges the alert and/orindicates to have moved the vehicle. The user may turn these alerts onor off in the settings of a mobile application, for example, usingremote computing device 132.

After the data is processed, it may go through a sub-system forinformation provisioning, and then be delivered to a user's in-vehiclenavigation system. In vehicles that do not have an in-vehicle navigationsystem, legal parking related data may be integrated into one or morecomputing devices, which may be GPS enabled.

The system may increase the user's chance to find legal parking byprocessing and analyzing data for at least three types of situations,for example, when parking is legal all the time (i.e., no restrictions),when parking has a limitation (e.g., certain hours, certain days of theweek, certain months of the year, rules for certain types of vehicles),and when parking is illegal at all times (i.e., no standing anytimezone), and then sending a notification to the user based on availableinformation, where a notification can include a parking sign image thatdisplays automatically to the user. Some areas contain on-street parkingthat do not have any applicable parking signs where parking is legal allthe time. This is common to residential areas but may also exist inother areas. Usually on-street parking might contain some sort oflimitation which allows or disallows parking during either certain timeframes of the day, certain days of the week, certain months of the year,or may require a certain type of vehicle or permit to be allowed topark. The variety of possible restrictions is often a source ofconfusion for drivers as there may be multiple signs indicatingdifferent applicable rules. These areas may be precluded as legalparking options if the time falls within the provided illegal parkingtime frame. If the signs indicate that there are limitations, then thetimes outside the limitations in these areas may be shown as a legalparking option through a notification or on an electronic map display.Other on-street parking that may be precluded at all times is areaswhere parking is illegal all the time because it is a no standinganytime zone.

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7, parking ticket information reportedthrough user engagement panel 134 may be recognized, processed, anduploaded to the system. That is, various legal parking related data asreported by a user (i.e., crowdsourced data) may be collected throughuser engagement panel 134 (i.e., a platform for the collaboration andsharing of legal parking related data). It will be understood by one ofordinary skill in the art that “user engagement panel” herein is used todenote a panel or interface that a user can access and through which theuser may exchange legal parking related data as well as share relevantideas. Other potential terms may be used to describe this function, suchas “forum,” “discussion group,” “online meeting,” etc. User engagementpanel 134 may be used by one or more users, or other interestedindividuals, or entities such as the government, government agents,municipalities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private entities,and community organizations, or media sources. User engagement panel 134may be accessible through a terminal or remote computing device 132,where the user may interact with user engagement panel 134 throughdisplay 212 of computing device 132.

Crowdsourced data may be periodically or continuously collected throughuser engagement panel 134 and analyzed to build a more accurate,up-to-date database 106. As used herein, “crowdsourcing” is adistributed data collection method that utilizes online and offlineresources to compile services, ideas, and/or content by the solicitationand/or capturing of data from a variety of people native to a specialcommunity that is targeted by the crowdsourced subject. Crowdsourcingmay be used in gathering data that is not provided through othersources. Crowdsourced data may be in the form of real-time data orhistorical data.

As depicted in FIG. 7, a user may submit parking citation informationthrough user engagement panel 134 (Step 700), which can include but isnot limited to accurate location according to GPS, time of receivingviolation citation, reason for receiving violation citation, type ofvehicle and type of vehicle plate, and any other additional relevantinformation, etc. Parking citation information may be input manually bythe user, or computing system 100 may perform optical characterrecognition (OCR) to obtain the information (Decision 702). Where theinput is through OCR, the user may provide a photograph, scan, or otherimage of the relevant citation (Step 704). If the user takes a pictureof the ticket to upload to database 106, the application may allow theuser to edit the image with an image editing function by covering,blurring, or redacting information and/or sharpening the image prior touploading the picture, or this may be done automatically by recognizingcertain private information such a license plate number or vehicleregistration information. Using OCR or another image to data converterto sharpen unclear images increases the success rate for computingsystem 100 to recognize the information in the image and convert it todata (Step 706). As an alternative, database 106 may also allow a userto scan the parking violation citation by utilizing camera or scannersoftware downloaded on remote computing device 132. Where the input ismanual, the user may enter data related to a received parking violationcitation by selecting available options (Step 710). This may includeinput through drop-down menus or accordion fields on an interactivetouch screen display, or the user can input through voice commands, etc.After conversion or after manual user input, the data can be processedor modified, which might include cleaning, formatting, and deduplicationof redundant data (Step 708). After it is processed, the data can beuploaded to the database 106 (Step 712) according to the data set bywhich the data can be sorted.

Next, in FIG. 8, the flowchart illustrates an approach for obtaining andprocessing parking violation related data as part of legal parkingrelated data, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure. Legal parking related data may be grouped byhistorical parking violation related data set for non-commercialvehicles and commercial vehicles, and real-time parking violationrelated data set for non-commercial vehicles and commercial vehicles.The first determination to be made is whether or not there is publicdata available (Decision 800). If so, sources of this available publicdata may be accessed (Step 802). These sources may be any source thatmakes parking violation related data publicly accessible may beaccessed. This can include but is not limited to entities such as thegovernment, government agents, municipalities, non-governmentorganizations (NGOs), private entities, and community organizations, ormedia sources. Media sources may include, but are not limited to,websites, blog posts, social networks, newspapers, magazines,professional articles, broadcasts, television programs, and any otherresources where legal parking related data generally available to thepublic can be collected. Access may be automatic and periodic. Onceaccess has been established, legal parking related data may be requestedfrom the sources and received once a request is granted (Step 804). Asthis data may be in a form defined by the source, the receivedviolations data may be parsed for key fields, and the key fields can bedisambiguated (Step 806).

Legal parking related data may additionally originate from private data,such as one or more users or interested individuals or private entities.Thus, if there is no data publicly available from a public agency orposted in a location accessible publicly such as a published website,then indicia of a parking violation citation may be received fromanother user (Step 808). Indicia inform computing system 100 that theuser has received a citation for a parking violation, and thus theprocess for collecting citation data from the user may begin. Duringthis process, computing system 100 may request the pertinent citationdata from the user as well as solicit potential suggestions on how toavoid a citation (e.g., avoidance information) (Step 810). Next, it isdetermined if a photograph or scan of the citation is received (Decision812). If a photograph or scan is received, OCR may be performed on thephotograph image, which may have been redacted (Step 814). Once OCR hasbeen performed, the OCR text may be parsed for key fields and key fieldscan be disambiguated (Step 806). It may be understood that in writingthe citations, the same location may be described in many differentways. For example, the parking space may be referred to by the addressthat it is in front of, or, in some cases, across from. This address mayalso be provided in many different ways. For example, a single streetmay be written as “sixth ave,” “sixth avenue,” “6th ave,” etc.Disambiguation therefore converts all data into a single format, forexample, a location can be geocoded into latitude/longitude coordinatesso it is more exact. Disambiguation may also be used to standardizeviolation names, for example, with reference to the abbreviations.

However, in situations where the user does not provide a photograph orscanned image of the citation, the user may be prompted to fill in thekey fields with pertinent data (Step 716), for example, in anunambiguous way such as by selecting from various options or manuallytyping into a text field or text box. Disambiguation may or may not benecessary in this case. Further, computing system 100 might providerecommendations for address input for the user, so that entries can bestandardized before final entry. In either event, all of the collecteddata may have duplicate violations removed (Step 818) and may be cleanedand formatted (Step 820) for database 106. Format can include how thedata can be presented, such as leaving data as a human-readable addressor geocoding, if necessary, to ensure that the same instance of acitation is not counted twice. This may be done, for example, withreference to a citation number that is specific to the issuing agency.Once the data is cleaned and formatted, it may be added to database 106by the data set (Step 822).

After relevant legal parking related data has been cleaned, the locationdata can be extracted in a data frame to be used in a third partygeocode API, for example, GOOGLE GEOCODING API, which is a locationgeocoding service provided by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., orSMARTYSTREETS, which is a location geocoding service for latitude andlongitude coordinates provided by SmartyStreets, LLC, etc., to output afile with all the geocoded information of relevant locations, where thefile may be a file such as a.csv file. Assuming the geocoding methodsdisclosed herein do not provide accurate geolocation, any other type oftechnology may be adopted or developed to more accurately identify thelocation or geolocation related to a parking violation as well as to apotentially available legal parking location. The output may be reviewedand corrected by the system administrator for accuracy and completeness.Parking sign or signage data and RRLC data files may also be uploaded,cleaned and merged with the citation data into database 106. The datacan be added to database 106 based on data set. For example, if new datapertains to a non-commercial vehicle, the data may be stored innon-commercial vehicle data set 400. If the new violation data pertainsto a commercial vehicle, the data may be stored in commercial vehicledata set 402. In addition, new data may be sub-grouped by type ofvehicle and type of vehicle plate. Data may include time, day, andlocation-linked rules for commercial and non-commercial vehicles for thesystem to determine parking rules.

Turning next to FIGS. 9A-9B, shown are schematic diagrams of anexemplary embodiment of the invention illustrating a user's interactionwith computing system 100 using remote computing device 132 whenreporting a parking ticket in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe inventive disclosure. For purposes of this illustration, computingdevice 132 is depicted as a mobile device such as a smartphone; however,it is to be understood that remote computing device 132 is not solimited, and it may be a vehicle integrated information or entertainmentunit or any other computer device or communications module. When a useris issued citation 900 for a parking violation, the user may use ticketscanner panel or module 804 on computing device 132 to take a picture orscan of citation 900, as depicted in FIG. 9A. As citation 900 mayinclude sensitive information such as the vehicle identification number(VIN) and other personal data, such as name, residential address, etc.,sensitive information can be redacted to create a redacted citationimage 902 either automatically or manually by the user. Alternatively,as seen in FIG. 9B, the user may input ticket information manually intocomputing device 132 using ticket information panel or module 906, forexample, by selecting from menu subheadings 908 and/or by entering it,and other information, into free text fields. The menu subheadings mayinclude type of vehicle, type of vehicle plate, reason for violation,time frame, location of violation, or price. The user may also useremote computing device 132 to choose the type of vehicle or type ofvehicle plate, or to provide a photograph, a video and/or an audiomessage with the ticket or other relevant information using still imagecamera 910, video camera 912, or microphone 914 of remote computingdevice 132.

After reporting a parking ticket as depicted in FIGS. 9A-9B using remotecomputing device 132, the system may provide an interface for the uservia the user engagement panel 134. Referring to FIGS. 10A-10B, shown areschematic diagrams of remote computing device 132 shown in FIGS. 8A-8Bfurther illustrating a user interface of the user engagement panel 134on user computing device 132 showing a “Tickets Sharing” panel or module1000 (FIG. 10A) and a “Q/AIC” (i.e., questions, answers, comments) panelor module 1002 (FIG. 10B) based on a specific location. Here, a user mayrate posts positively or negatively by clicking on the appropriatebutton or icon 1012 (e.g., by selecting the check-mark for a positiverating and the “X” for a negative rating) within user engagement panel134 of user computing device 132, as well as add any comments by usingbutton or icon 1004. Information 1006 on user engagement panel 134 caninclude reasons, location of the violation, ticket penalty amounts, thenumber of tickets previously issued for the location, and other commentsabout a citation. In Q/A/C panel 1002 of FIG. 10B, the user can submitquestion 1008 about, for example, a particular location, and thenreceive answer 1009 from computing system 100. A user may also choose tosubmit questions, answers, and comments by using button or icon 1010 inthe Q/AIC panel 1002. Here too users can rate posts positively ornegatively by clicking on the appropriate button or icon 1014 (e.g., byselecting the check-mark for a positive rating and the “X” for anegative rating) within user engagement panel 134 of user computingdevice 132, as well as add any comments by using button or icon 1010.

Similarly, FIGS. 10C-10D show diagrams illustrating a user interfacerelated to user engagement panel 134. In these depictions are shown a“Signs” panel or module 1014 (FIG. 10C) and an “Other” panel or module1022 (FIG. 10D). “Other” panel 1022 can show any information related tomiscellaneous subjects and might be based on a specific location or ageneral location. Signs panel 1014 might be a resource for a user toaccess clarifications of parking signs 1016, where potential questionsmay have been asked or can be added that might be or have been answeredby another user and rated by those who might view it or are qualified torate it. Here too a user may rate posts positively or negatively byclicking on the appropriate button or icon 1018 (e.g., by selecting thecheck-mark for a positive rating and the “X” for a negative rating)within user engagement panel 134 of user computing device 132, as wellas add any comments by using button or icon 1020. Users may togglebetween the Tickets Sharing, Q/A/C, Signs and Other interfaces at anytime using buttons 1001, 1003, 1014 and 1022, respectively.

Referring next to FIG. 11, shown is a flowchart illustrating the processof rating legal parking related data submitted through user engagementpanel 134 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure, and how those ratings of the submitted data affect the datawithin database 106. The first step in this process might be the usersubmitting legal parking related data to user engagement panel 134 (Step1100). This legal parking related data may include, for example, aparking sign or signage redesign regarding translation into a differentlanguage or clarification of content, suggestions on how to avoidparking violation citations, etc. That information may then be rated byother users. The user might be prompted to rate the data based onwhether or not the submitted data is accurate (Decision 1102). Userratings (i.e., positive or negative) are collected and used to sort thecontributed legal parking related data. If any user rates the submittedlegal parking related data negatively as to its accuracy, that user hasan option to provide proof of why that legal parking related data may bewrong (Step 1104). All submitted ratings, positive and negative, may becollected and sorted (Step 1106) by computing system 100 until apredetermined number of ratings (i.e., positive, negative) has beenreached (Decision 1108).

If the number of ratings has not reached the predetermined number(Decision 1108), computing system 100 may continue to collect moreratings from other users (Decision 1102). If the number of ratings hasreached a predetermined number (Decision 1108), then the additionallegal parking related data may be used to correct, update, supplement,or modify database 106 accordingly (step 1110). Thus, correcting,updating, supplementing, or otherwise modifying database 106 may be frompositive or negative ratings. Positive ratings may be used to replace orreinforce the data in database 106, and negative ratings may be used toidentify or invalidate inaccurate data. Once in database 106, thecontributed legal parking related data may be used to issue a relevantnotification regarding that legal parking related data. For example, ifthe legal parking related data submitted to user engagement panel 134was a suggestion on how to find a free parking space at a particularlocation, that suggestion or its data may be included within thenotification that is relevant to that location and that is subsequentlygenerated and issued to an applicable user (Step 1114).

The process by which database 106 is kept current involves, in part, auser rating the notification that the user receives. However, the usermay only rate the notification if the user has firsthand experience. Auser having firsthand experience is identified as a user who hasreceived a notification with legal parking related data about a specificlocation by passing within a predetermined radius of that specificlocation. This radius may be set by default or preset by the userthrough the settings. For purposes of identifying the firsthandexperience, remote computing device 132 capable of determining alocation and transmitting the identified geolocation of the user havingfirsthand experience with such location to computing system 100 may beused.

This process can be illuminated through an example of a notificationinforming a user that there were no parking prohibitions in effect whenin fact the user's parking location was subject to a temporaryprohibition regarding street cleaning. In this case, the user may, onthe user interface, rate the notification, e.g., provide a negativerating. A user may substantiate a negative rating by submitting proofthat the notification was inaccurate. The user in this example may takea picture of the sign that announced when the street cleaning was ineffect, or any other relevant signage. This feedback is collected alongwith the ratings, which may update database 106 to reflect the newuser-submitted data. If the data that the user provides through thisnegative rating turns out to be accurate, it may be used to correct,update, and supplement database 106. However, the data or informationprovided by negative ratings would have to exceed a predetermined numberto overturn a notification. If a negative rating and its correspondinginformation have not passed the predetermined number, the user'snegative rating may be shown in the notification by including anindication that a small percentage of users have rated the notificationnegatively and/or as inaccurate. When those negative ratings do reachthe predetermined number, the new information provided through thoseratings may replace the existing relevant data in database 106. This inturn updates the content of the notification that is issued. In theabove street cleaning example, if the user is the first to indicate thatthere is a relevant street cleaning regulation, and user engagementpanel 134 receives ten more negative ratings saying that thenotification in effect is incorrect, supported with information similarto or the same as the first user, then once there have been enoughsubmissions or ratings, database 106 may be corrected, updated, andsupplemented based on this corroborated information.

The number of submissions or ratings sufficient to be “enough” forpurposes of correction, updating, supplementing or otherwise modifyingdatabase 106 may be a predetermined number (e.g., 10, 25, 35 ratings orsubmissions, etc.), or may be a predetermined percentage of totalratings (e.g., a 25%, 10%, or 1% negative rating threshold may trigger adata review), or may be based on some other predetermined informationsetting. The predetermined number of ratings may also differ based onlocation. In a busy location such as a central business district ordowntown area, the density of parking violations and the demand forspecific parking locations may be higher than in more rural areas. Inaddition, there may be more users sharing or rating the legal parkingrelated data. Therefore, these different locations may have differentstandards for predetermining a number of ratings.

The positive ratings are used to verify that the data provided in thenotification is accurate. When the notification reaches a certain numberof positive ratings that may be predetermined, computing system 100 canconfirm the validity of the legal parking related data that thenotification is based on. If the notification that reaches apredetermined number of positive ratings is based on and inferredviolation, such inferred violation may turn thus be determined to beaccurate. When an inference is substantiated by a citation at some laterpoint (e.g., a parking violation citation is issued at a certain time),that information regarding the inferred potential violation may bechanged to reflect a direct application of database 106 data.

The user who is the first to provide corrective or new informationthrough user engagement panel 134 that then is incorporated in one ormore notifications that receive a predetermined number of positiveratings may be provided with a monetary or non-monetary reward or awardfor being the first to contribute useful information (e.g., informationand/or data that reaches a predetermined number of positive ratings).This feature provides incentive to users to provide accurate and timelyinformation, thereby keeping database 106 current and accurate. Anincentive to the user is rewarding efficient and useful reporting ofinformation to help other users. Incentives are useful in obtaining bothactive participation from one or more users and also for obtainingaccurate and truthful information. Active participation is importantbecause statistical analysis can be made more accurate with large groupsof data and it is important to continuously obtain real-time data ofcurrent situations.

Additionally, incentives may be used to encourage reporting of legalparking related data by a user to correct, update, supplement, orotherwise modify the data in database 106. This incentive structurepaired with an administrative quality control center may be used toensure the quality and reliability of the data in database 106, as thisdata is subsequently used to identify potentially available legalparking and therefore needs to be kept to high standards of accuracy andreliability. Each data input, whether crowdsourced or sourced elsewhere,historical or real-time, may be assigned a unique tracking number,allowing at least the system administrator to track the data back to itsoriginal source if necessary.

For example, a reward or award may be issued to a user who reportsticket information at a location that has no prior ticket history ofparking violations in the database 106, if that ticket is incorporatedin the notification that reaches a predetermined number of positiveratings from one or more additional users having firsthand experience.The amount the user may receive may be the total amount stated on theuser's ticket or an amount that is set by the system administratoraccording to the amount of positive ratings received for providingticket information along with comments and recommendations on how toavoid parking violation citations. Through rewards a user maypotentially incur no net losses from ticket violations and may alsoeducate others to better comply with RRLC by sharing ideas to avoidfuture parking ticket violations.

The reward system may involve several steps. For example, in order to beeligible, the user may be required to be the first user to fully reportnew ticket information in detail for that specific location that did nothave any prior ticket history by reporting the date; the time from theissued ticket with specific information on the reasons for the ticket;and giving beneficial suggestions, ideas, and/or advice on how to avoidthe same violation. However, other users may be allowed to enter ticketinformation if a ticket for the same location indicates differentreasons or violations which may qualify for a reward. The applicationmay allow a user to take a photo of the ticket, which may be redacted orsharpened before submission as described. Each location may allow forthe submission of one original ticket report which may allow one user toreceive a reward. The system administrator may change the type of rewardand/or amount of reward to different users who report parking ticketinformation by descriptions in different circumstances. For example, areward for the first user may pay double amount of the reward or give agift as a monetary reward. Also, a user who actively participates insupplying user-collected (i.e., crowdsourced) information may do sowithout expecting to be rewarded (i.e., by opting out of receivingrewards through settings in user engagement panel 134 or may simplydecline a reward when one is being offered).

Additional users having identified firsthand experience may rate thedata provided in the notification as a whole. If, however, an additionaluser having firsthand experience happens to agree with part of the dataconveyed by the notification but disagrees with another part because theuser finds the latter part being inaccurate, the user may rate the parthe/she agrees with positively and the inaccurate part negatively. Theuser may then provide any information in support of a negative rating.Additionally, in the case where only a part of the data in thenotification reaches a predetermined number of positive ratings, theuser who was responsible for submitting that data through userengagement panel 134 in the first place may still receive an award butsuch award may only be partial. In the case where the inaccurate part ofthe notification receives a predetermined number of negative ratings,the data of that part may be removed from database 106. The dual processof rating of the data submitted through user engagement panel 134 aswell as subsequent rating of the notifications allows for correcting,updating, supplementing, or otherwise modifying data in database 106.This may be the cycle that keeps the data in database 106 dynamicallyupdated regarding any changes or inaccuracies.

Since a notification is short and meant to alert the user with quick,summarized information about the potentially available legal parkinglocations, the user may utilize the user engagement panel, including butnot limited to a forum module, to obtain more comprehensive and detailedinformation from posts which include but are not limited to inquiries,responses, discussions, pictures, videos, written descriptions, and anyother information that may be posted. The combination of receiving anotification and accessing a user engagement panel 134 may provide moreuseful and extensive information for a user because a notificationprovides quick, time-sensitive information while user engagement panel134 provides the detailed, extensive information useful to gain fullknowledge of the situation.

User engagement panel 134 may incorporate two aspects: a specific userengagement panel that connects to a specific location on the electronicmap, and a general user engagement panel where a user may discussgeneral ideas not related to specific locations. The user can select aspecific location or zone within the map display to choose “Panel,” toaccess the user engagement panel, which may include different categorieswhere information may be exchanged between users (e.g., Tickets Sharing;Questions or Answers or Comments; Parking Signs; and/or Other categoriesnot included in the above, if any etc.), as shown in and discussed morespecifically with respect to FIGS. 9A-9B and 10A-10B herein. The contentthat is automatically supplied in user engagement panel 134 might bebased on the user's current location. The questions or answers orcomments category may allow a user to ask any questions, input anyanswers, and input any comments related to legal parking related datafor the location in addition to viewing all this information contributedby other users. The parking signs category may allow a user to exchangeinformation regarding parking signs, such as redesign of a parking signregarding, or translation to a different language or clarification ofcontent. Other categories not included in the above may be added ordeleted at the discretion of the system administrator. When a user mighthave an inquiry regarding legal parking related data for a location, theapplication may allow the user to post such inquiry using userengagement panel 134 to obtain more information. The terms “general”user engagement panel or “specific” user engagement panel is meant foridentification purposes only, in order to distinguish the type ofinformation that is conveyed. The terms are not intended to limit thescope to a particular kind of device, application or system. In fact,the name “general user engagement panel” and “specific user engagementpanel” can be changed by a user or by the system and the name of theuser engagement panel can be labeled as a forum, section, part, or evenre-named as “Panel A” or “Panel B,” for example. No matter what name isused, the purpose to identify the portion of the system and thefunctions that it performs under the user engagement panel remains thesame as disclosed herein in the inventive disclosure.

User engagement panel 134 may also be accessed for content in otherareas. For example, this may refer to a user in one location who intendsto rent a truck to move to another town in a different part of thecountry. The user might like to see legal parking related dataapplicable to a certain area where the user intends to unload the truck.Since a truck is often considered a commercial vehicle, and differentareas might have different regulations regarding parking and unloading acommercial vehicle in the street, it might be convenient for the user tobecome familiar with legal parking related data applicable to thatcertain area in advance. It is to be understood by one of ordinary skillin the art that this is one example out of many possible reasons a usermay want to access user engagement panel 134 content for areas otherthan the user's immediate surroundings.

The user may also be allowed to do a general search for potentiallyavailable legal parking locations in the specific parking zone withinuser engagement panel 134 and may further search according to type ofvehicle or type of vehicle plate. According to an embodiment herein,there are different formats to identify the density of previously issuedparking violation citations at specific locations. For example, thehigher the density of issued parking citations in any particularlocation, the darker the color. This format is applied for both broadand narrow geographic areas; whether that area be a borough or a street.Furthermore, this format identifies a fluctuation in number of issuedparking violation citations based on the time of day. Additionally, theparking spaces may be indicated by different formats, such as differentcolors or shapes. For example, a solid red line would represent that thespace is illegal, whereas a dotted red line would represent a legalparking space but is occupied by another user; green color between thedotted lines would represent an available legal parking space. The useror users who view this information might be split into two categories:commercial vehicle users and non-commercial vehicle users. Each type ofuser might view a different format at least related to the type ofvehicle that they are driving or type of vehicle plate they have and canfurther categorize into different vehicle type or different type ofvehicle plate. For example, users in commercial vehicle user types maysee a green format for a particular location to indicate that legalparking is available, while users in non-commercial vehicle user typesmay receive red color format in the same areas as the commercial usersto indicate that the parking is illegal because that location isrestricted for non-commercial use.

Different formats, such as different colors or shapes, may be utilizedto indicate and differentiate legal parking data. However, in oneembodiment, there may be at least three formats used to display at leastlegal parking related data. These formats may include potentiallyavailable legal parking, complete illegal parking, and occupied orunavailable parking. A user may choose to display one of the formats,all of the formats, or any combination of two formats. The system mayautomatically display at least one or more of the above formats. Theseformats and the information associated with these formats may bedynamically changing based on the data in the database. For example, atone minute in time a parking location may be illegal for a particularuser type due to street cleaning, but the next minute that parkinglocation may be legal for the user type because the street cleaning isover. Similarly, at one moment a parking location may be occupied, butonly shortly thereafter, the same parking location may be available.This information is dynamically changing, therefore the database isdynamically updated and changing the at least three formats. Such datamay be changed according to the time of day, location, etc. To view thisdata on the electronic map display, the user may input a specificlocation along with current time, a time frame, and/or a certain pointin time or a period of time in the future and is presented an electronicmap on their mobile phone. This helps the user save time and resourcesby not having to first drive to the location itself in order toascertain whether legal parking is available. If, for instance, the useris able to see on the map that at the same time tomorrow the possibilityof finding legal parking at the same present location is not availablebecause alternate side of the street parking rules are in effect, theuser may simply plan to go to another location with prior knowledge ofavailable legal parking.

In essence, the user may view potentially available legal parking forthe current time, a time frame, or a certain number of hours in thefuture at any location and at any time, for example by hour or half hourincrements and, if parking is illegal, choose an alternative legalparking location. Therefore, the user may look into the currentsituation or the future situation at the location for when the userexpects to arrive at the intended destination. The information on thecharts can be changed depending on if the user indicates he/she isdriving a non-commercial vehicle or a commercial vehicle. The user mayalso press on a specific location within the electronic map display ofthe mobile application to view this information.

If the self-search does not result in an answer that satisfies the user,the user may have the option to post inquiries in user engagement panel134 regarding a specific location or area. By educating other usersthrough sharing at least their own legal parking related experience,users may be more conscious of their parking actions, which may help incompliance with legal parking.

An exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure may use athird-party service and/or API, for example, GOOGLE TRANSLATE, which isa language translation service provided by Google, a subsidiary ofAlphabet Inc., or the system administrator may hire professionals withexpertise in parking compliance and also competent translators totranslate the content to different languages or provide explanations inplain English. A user may also translate information, which may besubject to positive and negative ratings.

Another exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure of theapplication may also connect to a third-party electronic map, forexample, GOOGLE MAPS, to provide a street view function on userengagement panel 134 for specific places with a high number ofpreviously issued parking violation citations. Other media, for example,photos, videos, etc. for the location may also be provided by a user oremployee of the system. This is especially useful for those locationswith a predetermined number of violations where more information shouldbe provided or for those locations where a user may be unfamiliar. Theuser's privacy or the public's privacy may be protected when uploadingphotos, videos, etc.

Although government websites may provide information on locations andthe applicable rules for parking signs, the data might not be completeor may be unavailable. Therefore, user engagement panel 134 allows foruser reporting of parking sign information, which may be used inidentifying potentially available legal parking locations by precludingillegal parking locations.

A user can also upload legal parking related data to the user engagementpanel, for example, parking violation citation data. There may usuallybe two types of tickets: either a handwritten or machine-generatedticket from a law enforcement officer or a machine-generated ticket froma street camera image. Different law enforcement agencies may also usedifferent forms for ticket violations. Any user reported information mayinclude the information such as location, time, reasons, and also anysuggestions, advice and/or solutions the user can contribute in order toshare knowledge to educate other users to avoid the same type ofviolation again. The person who receives the ticket may be in the bestposition to submit suggestions, advice and/or solutions based onfirsthand experience.

A user may also use user engagement panel 134 to post a picture of aparking or street signage at a specific location and ask about the plainlanguage of the sign. Drivers often experience difficulty inunderstanding parking signs, especially when there are multiple signsfor different parking rules. In addition, many drivers might not have astrong command of the meaning of the signage language, which leads tofurther difficulties in interpreting the signs. Therefore, userengagement panel 134 may provide information on the parking signsassociated with a specific location and translate these parking signsnot only into another language, but also into easy-to-understand,plain-language terms. Since some parking signs are confusing, a user mayparticipate in redesigning them to make new designs. A user may createredesigns or translate traditional parking signs to different languagesto be more understandable. Their design images may be subject to arating system, where the top-rated design may remain at the top of thelist so other users can view and easily understand the meaning of thesigns.

User engagement panel 134 may also allow a user to update parkingrestriction conditions to indicate for example, the condition has beenchanged temporarily or permanently, etc. The government agency or lawenforcement agency, such as the police department may releaseinformation on their websites or post a temporary notice on the streetregarding a temporary notice of “No Parking” areas on certain streetsfor certain time. Temporary notices also include no parking notices dueto some special events, for example gatherings, road repairs, movieproductions, etc. However, people might not know of or might notnecessarily see these notices posted on the parking sign or the noticesmight not readily be apparent. When a user parks his/her vehicle, theuser may be notified by computing system 100 of any applicable temporarynotices.

When a user discovers the information, the user can report the notice touser engagement panel 134 and upload a picture of the notice, wherebydatabase 106 may apply the stated parking rule to the whole street. As aresult, a user who has parked his/her vehicle on the applicable streetduring the applicable time frame and/or distance frame restrictions orwho has indicated in the settings that he/she wants to receive anotification for any temporary notices on the street may receive anotification. Computing system 100 may prevent this user frompotentially receiving a ticket or being towed away since thenotification may warn the user of the temporary notice. This reportingmethod may also be applicable to other situations where any RRLC may beupdated if database 106 does not detect it by itself. A user may submitand upload any relevant information through various media that includebut are not limited to: photos or images from cameras, sensors, videos,hand drawn pictures, written descriptions, and any other mediums toaccurately describe the situation for the location through the userengagement panel. To encourage a user to report the discovery of anychanges in RRLC, a user may earn rewards. The system administrator mayalso hire employees or third-party contractors to report the temporarynotices so a notification may be sent to the user.

Reported information may be subject to review and/or ratings by thesystem administrator and also other users to ensure that credibleinformation is being collected to provide a notification. Comments,suggestions, etc. may be listed in user engagement panel 134 accordingto ratings, and the ones with the highest number of positive ratings maybe listed at the top, so other users can clearly view the posts that arerated as the most accurate. The user may be allowed to report to thesystem administrator any potentially inaccurate information withapplicable proof. The system administrator may be able to open a casewhere an employee and/or user may be sent to conduct an investigation ofthe purported inaccurate information to verify the quality of theinformation.

In addition, when legal parking related data is identified astime-sensitive, whether submitted through user engagement panel 134 orcollected from another source, the system administrator may be given thediscretion to immediately incorporate this time-sensitive data into anotification, because there may be a need to notify a user as soon aspossible, such as in the case of a temporary notice or a tow away zone,and because some information regarding a time-sensitive prohibition maybe preferable to no information. In this scenario, the time-sensitivedata may not need to reach a predetermined number of positive ratingsprior to being incorporated into a notification. If a notification withtime-sensitive legal parking related data reaches a predetermined numberof negative ratings, this time-sensitive data may be removed fromdatabase 106.

Turning now to FIG. 12, shown is a flowchart illustrating a process ofrating a notification in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure. Once a user's intent to park is identified, thesystem may use legal parking related data contained within database 106to generate and issue a notification (Step 1114) according to theprocess described herein. A notification may be in part based on thelegal parking related data from an informational source, or it may be inpart based on legal parking related data from a submission to userengagement panel 134 which received enough ratings to be incorporatedinto a notification as described in FIG. 11 herein. In any case, thisinformation allows the user to park knowing the parking rules that applyto the current parking location.

After a notification is generated and issued (Step 1114), the userhaving firsthand experience may judge on whether the content of it wasaccurate by rating it (Decision 1202). If the user rates the content ofnotification positively (e.g., that the notification was accurate), thesystem may collect and sort the notification content ratings (Step1204). Accordingly, accurate data that leads to an accurate notificationmay be reinforced and otherwise kept in place. If the user rates thenotification content negatively (e.g., that it was inaccurate either inpart or in whole), the user may then provide proof of why thenotification was inaccurate (Step 1206). A negative rating may be givento the content of a notification when, for example, the parkingprohibitions in effect for a particular location are in fact differentfrom those cited in the notification, such as incorrect timing or day ofthe week information. In the case where the notification does notaccurately reflect the parking rules, a user would submit a picture ofthe parking sign or another type of evidence as proof of thatnotification's inaccuracy in that situation. The ratings, both positiveand negative, are recorded and collected until a certain type of ratinghas reached a predetermined number (Decision 1208). If the number ofratings does not reach the predetermined number, the system continues tocollect and sort notification ratings. If the number of ratings reachesthat predetermined number, then a monetary or non-monetary reward may beissued to the user who first submitted legal parking related datacontained in the rated notification (Step 1210).

After a notification has been issued, of the system receives feedbackabout the notification's accuracy from a user to correct, update,supplement, or otherwise modify legal parking related data withindatabase 106 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure. When a user is approaching a specific parking location thatcomputing system 100 has identified as a potentially available legalparking location for that user, then the computing system 100 may issuea notification to the user to park. After that, three differentsituations may occur. First, the notification issued by computing system100 is inaccurate, where the user parks and finds out that a parkingviolation may potentially be issued. Second, the notification issued bycomputing system 100 is inaccurate, where the user parks and receives aticket. Third, the notification issued by computing system 100 isaccurate and the parking location is indeed legal, where the user parksand does not receive a ticket. In the case that the notification isinaccurate and a user finds out that a potential parking violation maybe issued, the user may proof of inaccuracy through the user engagementpanel that may be subject to ratings collected from additional usershaving firsthand experience. In the case that the notification isinaccurate and the user receives a ticket, the user may submit theticket through the user engagement panel, which may also be subject toratings from additional users having firsthand experience. If the user'ssubmission reaches a predetermined number of ratings, computing system100 may update or otherwise modify the data in the database along withany corresponding notification and issue a reward to the user who madethe submission (e.g., with payment equal to the amount of the citationreceived). Alternatively, however, the computing system may wait untilthe notification updated or otherwise modified by the user's submissionreaches a predetermined number of ratings and only then issue a rewardas described in FIG. 11 starting with step 1110 and further in FIG. 12.

Next, FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a process of alerting the userbased on the data in the database 106 in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure. The location coordinates (e.g.,location data from a location-based service (LBS)) of remote computingdevice 132 may be periodically transmitted to and received by computingsystem 100 (Step 1300). Computing system 100 can then compare theidentified location to the intended destination of the user (Step 1302).If the user is close enough or otherwise indicates a desire to park(e.g., within a predetermined distance, moving at a certain speed,inputs a certain command), computing system 100 may attempt to identifyparking intent (Decision 1304). If no parking intent is identified,computing system 100 may repeat the parking query based on the user'spreferences (Step 1306) (e.g., a user may only want two notificationsasking about parking intent). Computing system 100 may continue toreceive location data from remote computing device 132, in addition todata such as the vehicle's location and speed.

Once parking intent is identified, computing system 100 may correlatethe information it has received with the current time. Database 106 maybe queried by computing system 100 based on the identified location, thepresent time, and the user type (Step 1310) to determine if there is anyapplicable prior parking violation within an impact zone (Step 1312), inorder for computing system 100 to preclude potentially illegal parkinglocations. Where it is determined that database 106 does not containdata of prior violations for that location, then the user may be issueda notification that the user may park at that location if it isavailable (Step 1314). Where it is determined that citations haveoccurred at the location and are applicable to the driver's user typeand to the present time/day, then a notification may be issued to theuser about applicable parking prohibitions that apply (Step 1316). Whereit is determined that citations have occurred at the location at a timeor day or there are prohibitions that might be applicable in the nearfuture (e.g., within a period of time that the user is to be parkedfor), then an optional follow-up notification or reminder may be set(Step 1318), so that the user may be provided by computing system 100with a notification (Step 1316) at a later time to remind the user ofthe need to leave the parking location prior to potentially receiving aparking violation citation.

Additionally, available parking options can be displayed to the userbased on the user's preferences or on a default regarding the priceand/or distance from the identified location (Step 1320). Computingsystem 100 may obtain ratings from the user (Step 1322) as to whetherthe notification he/she received is accurate. Optionally, the system maybe configured to automatically provide an alarm or other alert to theuser once parked to indicate that the user is parked in an illegalparking location.

The system can be implemented so that a user can either submit a requestor receive an offer for a parking space. FIG. 14 shows a flowchartillustrating an approach for users, using the system of the inventivedisclosure, to post a demand or request for a parking space in order tofind another user who is about to vacate or might be willing to give upa parking space to the user in accordance with an exemplary embodimentof the inventive disclosure. When parking intent is identified for User1 (Step 1400), computing system 100 can send an inquiry to User 1 aboutwhether User 1 would like to park now or sometime in the near future(Decision 1402). If User 1 wants to park in the near future, then thecomputing system 100 can send User 1's parking request to other userswho are parked nearby (i.e., within a predetermined range) based on User1's current, identified, or desired location (Step 1404). The system maydetermine if there is a first User 2 who responds to User 1's request(Decision 1406). If so, User 2 may be connected with User 1 andsubsequently may allow User 1 to park at his/her parking space (Step1414). Optionally, User 1 may be provided with more than one (1) usersresponding to User 1's request so that User 1 can choose from aplurality of nearby parking locations. The definition of “nearby” may bebased on the user's preference or on a default. If there is no user whoresponds, the parking request may continue to be sent to users parkednearby for a predetermined amount of time to wait for a response (Step1407).

If User 1 needs to park immediately, then computing system 100 sendsUser 1's parking request to the nearest User 3 who can provide anavailable parking space (Step 1408). User 1 then waits for User 3 torespond (Decision 1410). If User 3 does not respond, then the requestgoes to the next closest User 3, until the request is accepted orexpires (Step 1412). If a User 3 accepts the request, then the users areconnected (Step 1414). When User 3 (or the next available user whoresponds) responds, User 1 and User 3 are connected (Step 1414). User 1might then drive to the parking space (Step 1416) and attempt to park.If User 1 cannot park because User 3 (or whoever accepted the request)does not eventually leave the parking space (Decision 1418), then User 1may have to repeat the process, or may just wait and park at the parkingspace after User 2, 3, and so on, leaves the parking space. Once parked,the users can rate each other (Step 1420). In such an embodiment,computing system 100 may be configured to provide a plurality of legallyparked users with the option to indicate a location where they arelegally parked and a time at which they may be vacating the legalparking location.

In another embodiment, the system may send a parking request of User 1to the nearest user within a predetermined distance who can provide aparking space. If that user declines or does not respond, the system maysend the parking request to the next-nearest user within a predetermineddistance who can provide a parking space. If no users respond to theparking request, the system may expand the predetermined distance forwhich to send the parking request to additional users.

Indicating parking intent may prompt computing system 100 to lock theuser's location and to send a notification to the users who have theintent to leave and may be matched with the original user who wants topark. Indicating leaving intent might also prompt computing system 100to lock the user's location and to send a notification to the userswithin a certain radius or distance of the user who has the intent topark. Either indication of parking intent may allow any potentialproviders to send offers with relevant parking space information to theuser who is trying to find a parking space. Matching users may make fulluse of the social media feature as users are connected in order tosuccessfully send and receive offers within the platform of the system.Additionally, another purpose of matching and connecting users withparking intent or leaving intent is to allow users to communicate withother users with a specific purpose without having users randomlyapproach or drive around to ask if drivers are leaving. This method maybe more time efficient, as users might approach other users with aspecific purpose of assisting each other. Socially connecting users alsopromotes future transactions between the users due to prior successfulparking transactions. Users may be able to control whether or not theyreceive these notifications by either turning this function on or off inthe settings of the system. Social connections are also helpful becausethe government may not allow for the exchange of parking spaces for auser's monetary gain. However, if allowed by law, the system may alsoallow for monetary payment and/or non-monetary rewards as aconsideration option for accepting parking related information.

Similarly, FIG. 15 shows a flowchart illustrating an approach for usersto post offers for a parking space to find another user looking foravailable legal parking and willing to accept the offer of a legalparking space in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the inventivedisclosure. As discussed above, exemplary embodiments of the system andmethod of the invention may be used to find a match and/or generate anotification when a User 1 shows intent to leave his/her parking space(Step 1500). After computing system 100 receives User 1's offer of anavailable parking space, it determines if the offer is for now or withina predetermined time (Decision 1502). If User 1 is offering a parkingspace at some later predetermined time, then the computing system 100may send User 1's offer to other users located nearby (User 2) based onthe identified location (Step 1504). The system may determine whether afirst User 2 responds to the parking offer (Decision 1506). If so, thefirst User 2 to respond may then be connected to User 1 to discuss beingable to park at User 1's parking space (Step 1514). If there is no userwho responds, the system may continue sending the parking offer tonearby users for a predetermined amount of time to wait for a response(Step 1507).

If User 1 is offering his/her parking space now, then the computingsystem 100 may send User 1's offer to the closest other user (User 3)who is looking for a parking space (Step 1508). If the nearest User 3does not respond (Decision 1510), then the offer may be sent to the nextclosest User 3 until the request is either eventually accepted orexpired (Step 1512). If a User 3 responds to the offer, then User 3 mayconnect with User 1 (Step 1514). After connection, the computing system100 may send the parking space location to User 3 who accepted theoffer, allowing him/her to drive to User 1's parking space (Step 1516)and wait for the space to become available by User 1 leaving. After User1 leaves and/or User 3 parks (Step 1518), the users can rate each other(Step 1520). The system may also be configured to issue monetary ornon-monetary awards or rewards to users giving up their legal parkingspaces through the system. Alternatively, the system may be configuredto enable User 1 to compensate User 2 or 3 for giving up their legalparking space through the system.

In another exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure, a user(e.g., User 1) may post a demand or request for a continuous parkingspace for duration of 10 hours and an amount he/she is willing to spend(e.g., $15) in a neighborhood. Those who have the authority to manageparking spaces or parking garages/facilities in that neighborhood andare registered with the system, may see this demand or request, andbased on their own availability, pricing, and/or other factors affectingparking space availability, may make an offer to User 1 with details onhow long they can provide a space, pricing information, and the locationof the parking space/garage. Alternatively, another user, for exampleUser 2, may see User 1's demand and offer User 1 a space at User 2'sgarage to negotiate for $20 for the 10 hours. A third user, for exampleUser 3 may offer User 1 a space at User 3's garage in another nearbyneighborhood, for $10 for the 10 hours. User 1 may have several optionswhen viewing these offers. User 1 may, for example, decide to messageUser 2 or 3 to make a counteroffer and negotiate the terms of thepricing or duration depending on User 1's needs. For example, User 1 mayask for a cheaper price from User 2 because User 1 would prefer to makea deal with User 2 since User 2's garage may be in a more convenientarea for User 1. Accordingly, users may communicate back and forth untilthe terms are agreed upon by both parties. Final prices can be keptconfidential and the deal may not be disclosed to any third parties.User 1 can also decide not to answer these offers and wait for otherpossible offers from other users. Additionally, whichever user acceptsUser 1's offer first may complete the deal and all other users may beprecluded. If no other users accept the offer, then the cycle may beginagain where User 1 can initiate another demand with a different price,which may create an acceptance from another user, resulting in asuccessful deal. Communications within the system of the mobileapplication between the user who needs a parking space and the users whocan provide a parking space includes but is not limited to, live-chat,messaging, and any other form of communication as allowed by theAdministrator of the proposed Application.

Intent of the user to leave a legal parking space may also be identifiedby determining and analyzing the speed and location throughaccelerometer 218 and location identifier 204, respectively. Whencomputing system 100 detects motion after a vehicle has been in park, itmay track the geolocation of each individual user along with the vehicleand/or user's speed, in which a change in acceleration or change inlocation can trigger the system to recognize leaving intent. Based onthe change in acceleration and change in location, the system may thensend a notification to the user to ask if the user is leaving a parkingspace, for example, “Leaving?” If the user chooses “Yes” then the systemmay find other users within a certain radius of the current user'slocation who are showing parking intent or users who request to beconnected because they are looking for parking. However, if the userdoes not respond to the alert after a certain time, for example, 3seconds then the inquiry may disappear automatically. Users may alsopress a button on the screen of the mobile device to show leaving intentand specify that the user is leaving now or leaving at a certain time inthe future.

Computing system 100 may also be configured to infer potential parkingprohibitions based on certain relevant data stored in database 106. InFIG. 16 shown is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for inferringa potential parking prohibition based on a location in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure. Here, computingsystem 100 may infer a parking prohibition based on location to precludethat location from potentially available legal parking locations.Computing system 100 may analyze legal parking related data that isavailable in database 106 for the surrounding locations and compare suchdata with RRLC. If the intended parking location 1600 of the user fallsbetween at least two locations, 1602 and 1604, with a record ofpreviously incurred parking violation citations applicable to the usertype of the user, computing system 100 may infer that the user mayreceive a parking violation citation at that intended parking location1600. This may cause the parking location to be precluded from beingdisplayed as a legal location. Each of the two previously incurredparking violation citations may be based on the same reasons, and thosereasons may correspond to the inference. Those reasons may be for thesame parking violation citation, such as parking in a No Parking AnyTime zone. An inference might not be made accurately if, for example,one parking violation citation is for an expired meter fee while theother parking violation citation is for parking in a loading zone.Furthermore, some parking violation citations may not be the basis of aninference such as a parking violation citation issued for the reason ofan expired meter.

The distance between locations where the intended parking location fallsmay depend on various factors. One factor which may affect the distancebetween those two locations may be what RRLC applies and based onparking violation data. The computing system 100 may predetermine thisdistance based on the applicable RRLC. In addition, the distance may bepredetermined based on location, where the distance in a denser citywith higher instances of parking violation citations may be smaller thanthat of a rural area with low instances of parking violation citations.The predetermined distance between locations may be on the same side ofthe street on a city block, or it may be a shorter predetermineddistance between locations. Based on the inferred prohibitions ofparking violation data, one or more locations where it would be illegalfor the user to park can be precluded from being listed as potentiallyavailable legal parking.

In order to preclude illegal parking locations for purposes of notifyinga user of potentially available legal parking locations, illegal parkinglocations that are applicable to at least the user type that the userbelongs to need to be identified first. There may be an occasion whencomputing system 100 may find a parking violation by directlycorrelating the user type with the present location and the present timein mining database 106 for legal parking related data. A directcorrelation may be in such a case where there has been a parkingviolation citation issued at the current location at the current time,which was issued based on a parking prohibition relating to the sameuser type and relating to the same type of vehicle or type of vehicleplate. For example, a direct correlation may be when a non-commercialvehicle user is given a notification that warns against parking atLocation X at 5:15 PM on a Tuesday because there is data in database 106which matches the situation: a non-commercial vehicle receiving aparking violation citation for parking at Location X at 5:15 PM on aprevious Tuesday. At least these three points—type of vehicle, location,and present time all correlate directly, as the two times (e.g., 5:15PM) occur at identical points in time. In this instance, a potentialparking prohibition does not need to be inferred, as there is an exactdata point which establishes the basis for the notification.

Since violation codes may be different depending on the agency thatissues tickets and collects ticket penalties, violation codes data inputinto database 106 may include violation codes from various agenciesand/or statutory codes as they appear when written into law. Computingsystem 100 may use these violation codes with the matching section codesand their respective meanings, which are stored in database 106, toinfer the time frame and distance frame to which the no standing ruleapplies as no standing is usually for 24 hours and may extend for awhole street block. If a user does not participate by reporting, thenthe system administrator may hire an employee to physically inspect thelocation and verify the distance frame. Computing system 100 may usethis information to accurately alert the user based on the vehicle'sdistance or time frame. Though inferences might not be one hundredpercent (100%) accurate all the time, as there are sometimes exceptionsto rules on a certain street between two similar locations, thecombination of knowing the codes that underlie the reasons for getting aticket in the first place and having a user rate the notification andthe information allows for that potential inaccuracy to be accountedfor. Tying a notification back to user engagement panel 134 may increaseefficiency and accuracy, allowing the notification to be corrected,updated, supplemented, or otherwise modified, as well.

In addition to precluding locations which are identified to have data ofone or more potential parking prohibitions either directly applicable tothe user or applicable by inference, the central processing unit may beconfigured to preclude locations in or near a tow zone area whichincludes but is not limited to private parking only, permit only,temporary road repairs, access for emergency services, and drivewayswhich cannot be blocked. Other situations may include handicappedparking, reserved parking, permit parking only, and any other parkingspaces designated for special purposes, wherein special purposes parkinglocations may be reported by one or more users, interested individuals,private entities, and the system administrator who may also collect suchinformation from sources. “No parking,” “Tow away zone,” “24 hoursactive driveway,” etc., are usually indicated with lines, signs and/orwords that state for example, “Tow Zone” or “Private Parking Only.” Towaway zone information may include a time frame when parking is illegalat an identified location of the user and the user's vehicle; thedistance to or from the tow away zone where parking is illegal; andinformation about private and public tow away zones, along with relevantinformation about towing companies and costs and penalties associatedwith the user's vehicle being towed away.

People who are authorized to manage such spaces subject to towing canregister towing information, or a user can report this information,which may be used by the computing system 100 to notify other users whoare not authorized to park in the space at any time. Important towinginformation includes but is not limited to location of the tow zone,towing company name and telephone number, penalty for parking in the towzone, and other relevant contact information. The user may check theparking location by pressing a button on the display of the computingdevice 132 to show the towing information such as the phone number,towing penalties, and other contact information if it has beenregistered by the people who are authorized to manage or access such towzone space. Both time and resources may be saved because a user isdeterred from parking in the tow zone. Tow zone areas may also beindicated on the map display through different colors to reflect thattemporary parking is not allowed, for example, due to a temporary towzone notice for road repairs.

Potential parking prohibitions directly applicable to a user arepredicted based on parking violation related data including a locationidentical to an illegal parking location, parking violation related dataincluding a point in time identical to the present time, or parkingviolation related data including a location identical to an illegalparking location corresponding to a point in time identical to thepresent time.

Alternatively, computing system 100 can predict potential parkingprohibitions applicable to the user by inference based on at leastrelevant parking locations, relevant parking times, or relevant parkinglocations corresponding to relevant parking times. Based on relevantparking locations, computing system 100 can predict potential parkingprohibitions applicable to the user from at least two relevant parkinglocations corresponding to one parking time, where each of the tworelevant parking locations has at least one previously issued parkingviolation citation. In this situation, the illegal parking location isbetween the two relevant parking locations, and the two parkinglocations are at a predetermined distance from each other.

Computing system 100 can also predict potential parking prohibitionsapplicable by inference based on at least two relevant parking timescorresponding to one relevant parking location. Here, each of the tworelevant parking times will have at least one previously issued parkingviolation citation, and the present time is between the two relevantparking times and the two relevant parking times are within apredetermined time frame. This time frame may be based on a point intime such as a time of day, a time of week, a time of month, or a timeof year. In this situation, the illegal parking is at a location with atleast two relevant parking times.

Additionally, computing system 100 can predict potential parkingprohibitions applicable by inference based on at least two relevantparking locations corresponding to at least two relevant parking times.The illegal parking location of the user here is between at least tworelevant parking locations at a predetermined distance from each othercorresponding to the present time being between at least two relevantparking times within a predetermined time frame. Also, computing system100 can predict potential parking prohibitions applicable to the user byinference based on at least previously issued parking violationcitations for the same type of parking violation from an issuing agency.

To identify potentially available legal parking locations, computingsystem 100 may also preclude occupied parking locations as well asparking locations which are predicted to have potential parkingviolations from being considered as potentially available legal parkinglocations. Thus, based on the parking locations that are precluded, theremaining parking locations are identified to be potentially availablelegal parking locations. Thus, in one scenario, if potential parkingviolations are predicted at a specific location at a certain time orwithin a certain time frame, the computing system may infer that at allother times not including that certain time or at all other timesoutside that certain time frame, that specific parking location is alegal parking location. For example, if the only potential parkingviolations are predicted at a location from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, then thecomputing system may infer that from 7:01 PM to 6:59 AM the samelocation may potentially be a legal parking location. In anotherscenario, if potential parking violations are predicted at the identicaltime or within an identical time frame for at least two relevantlocations, computing system 100 may infer that locations that do notfall in between these at least two relevant locations and that do nothave any violation at that identical time or within that identical timeframe, may potentially be legal parking locations at that identical timeor at that identical time frame. For example, if potential parkingviolations are predicted at 7:00 AM or between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM atboth location A and location B but not for relevant location D, which isnot between A and B, then the computing system may infer that at 7:00 AMor between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM location D may potentially be a legalparking location. Essentially, these predictions of potential parkingviolations may be used to identify parking locations as potentiallylegal parking location.

In another embodiment of the inventive disclosure, computing system 100may identify potentially available legal parking locations directlyapplicable to a user based on previous available legal parking locationsincluding an available legal parking location identical to the intendedparking location, including a point in time identical to the presenttime, or including an available legal parking location identical to theintended parking location corresponding to a point in time identical tothe present time. Computing system 100 may also predict by inferencewhether a location is a potentially available legal parking locationbased on whether the present time is associated with previous legalparking locations for the user type of the user at the same time, andthat same time is within a predetermined time frame. Computing system100 may also predict by inference if an intended parking location is apotentially available legal parking location based on whether theintended parking location falls between at least two locations with arecord of previous legal parking locations for the user type of theuser. Computing system 100 can also predict by inference if an intendedparking location is potentially available legal parking locationapplicable based on at least two relevant parking locationscorresponding to one parking time, where each of the two relevantparking locations has a record of legal parking for the user type of theuser, at least two relevant parking times corresponding to one relevantparking location, where each of the two relevant parking times has arecord of legal parking for the user type of the user (e.g., the presenttime is between the two relevant parking times and the two relevantparking times are within a predetermined time frame, which may be basedon a point in time such as a time of day, a time of week, a time ofmonth, or a time of year), and/or at least two relevant parkinglocations corresponding to at least two relevant parking times. Thepotentially available legal parking location of the user would bebetween at least two relevant parking locations at a predetermineddistance from each other corresponding to the present time being betweenat least two relevant parking times within a predetermined time frame.These predictions which are directly applicable or applicable byinference may cause the parking location to be displayed as apotentially available legal parking location.

Referring next to FIG. 17, shown is a diagram illustrating a user'sremote computing device 132 and notification 1802 that a user mayreceive regarding a potential parking prohibition based on location inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure.Once computing system 100 identifies the user's parking intent, itissues prompt 1701 to the user to confirm his/her parking intent on theuser's remote computing device 132 by clicking either “yes” or “no”1700. When the user is parking and has clicked “yes,” the system may beprompted to display a notification to the user regarding a parkingprohibition 1702 based on the user's current location. Although thesewindows are not illustrated as being displayed within the user's remotecomputing device 132, it is to be understood that this depiction ismerely for purposes of providing a clear illustration and that thesedialog windows would be displayed within the user's remote computingdevice 132.

In the example shown in FIG. 17, the user's identified location is 10001st Avenue. There may be a summary of relevant information, such as whatparking rule or regulation applies to the user's intended parkinglocation, which in this case is a prohibition regarding non-commercialvehicles parking in a commercial-vehicle only zone. Also displayed is acomparison of the collected ratings for notification 1702. In thisexample, the user's notification has been proven to be accurate by 100%of users' ratings. If the user would like to know the reasoning behindthis notification, the user may click “See Details” button 1704 to viewdetails relating to why computing system 100 has generated notification1702. A dialog box containing relevant citations issued 1706 can then beshown to the user. In this example, there are two relevant citationsissued on the relevant day of the week at the relevant time,respectively. As shown, both citations were issued to non-commercialvehicle users for parking in a commercial-vehicle only zone. The usercan then rate this part of the entire notification and its relatedinformation regarding its accuracy by clicking on “Rate” button 1708,which brings up notification rating panel 1710 on the user's computingdevice 132. This way the user may give a positive rating of “Yes” or anegative rating of “No” to the notification. By giving the negativerating, the system may prompt the user to further submit proof ofinaccuracy 1712. In this prompt, the system may ask the user to submitor type in reasons by clicking on button or icon 1714 as to why thenotification was inaccurate or submit a picture of signage by clickingon button or icon 1716 in question or a parking violation citation.

Another inference scenario may be seen in FIG. 18, which shows a diagramillustrating a system for inferring a potential parking prohibitionbased on time in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of theinventive disclosure. Here, computing system 100 may infer a parkingprohibition based on time at the user's intended parking location 1600to preclude that parking location from having potentially availablelegal parking locations. If the present time is associated with one ormore parking violation citations 1802/1804/1806 within a predeterminedtime frame, which all relate to the same parking prohibition identifiedon sign 1808, computing system 100 may infer that the user may receive aparking violation citation at that intended parking location 1600 and atthe present time, and therefore preclude that parking location asillegal parking location for that user at that present time.

The predetermined time frame may be predetermined based on applicableRRLC, or the predetermined time frame may be a time frame that is basedon the time of issuance of a parking violation citation. This time framemay also be a time frame such as one, two, or three hours, or a largertime frame such as ten hours or any other duration depending on relevantfactors, such as a prohibition for street cleaning which applies for anhour and a half.

For example, a possible parking prohibition may be no parking between 9AM and 5 PM, where the time frame may be an eight-hour time frame.Database 106 may have a record of a parking violation citation receivedby a vehicle parked at Location A at 9:13 AM, where the known RRLC is aparking prohibition due to street cleaning which applies from 9:00AM-10:30 AM. The time frame in this scenario may be predetermined to bean hour and a half based on the duration of the street cleaningprohibition. Computing system 100 may analyze the parking violationcitation to infer that the same or different vehicle parked at LocationA may receive a parking violation citation if they park at 9:51 AM,because 9:51 AM is within the predetermined time frame. In anotherscenario, the database 106 has a record of a parking violation citationat Location K at 7:15 PM. A notification may be issued to a user whointends to park at Location K at 7:21 PM where Location K is precludedfrom being identified as a potentially available legal parking location,because 7:21 PM falls within the same half-hour time frame as theparking violation citation.

A time frame may be applicable to several situations: for example, “NoStanding Anytime” where the time frame would need to indicate 24 hours,so any user whose geolocation data shows a location that is in a NoStanding Anytime zone may receive a notification at any time. Time framedata may also be applicable to alternate-side parking, for streets thatdo not allow parking during certain times due to government streetcleaning services, which for example is usually applicable for half anhour (e.g., 9:00 AM-9:30 AM) or temporary tow zones notices, which forexample, are usually applicable for a day or a few days. The database106 may connect with computing device 132 to send an automaticnotification, reminding the user to move a vehicle due to streetcleaning rules.

Computing system 100 may also infer a parking prohibition based on timeby analyzing similar times on different days of the week. If the timesare at the same time every day, or at the same time on the same day, thecomputing system 100 may infer that there may be a parking prohibitionat that time on that day, or that time every day. For example, a vehicleat Location B at 9:30 AM on Tuesday receives a parking violationcitation. The same or different vehicle at Location B at 9:30 AM onWednesday receives a parking violation citation. The same or differentvehicle at Location B at 9:30 AM on Thursday receives a parkingviolation citation. The computing system 100 may analyze these parkingviolation citations to infer that the same or different vehicle parkedat Location B at 9:30 AM on a Friday may most likely receive a parkingviolation citation. In another example, a vehicle at Location C at 9:30AM on Tuesday, September 1st receives a parking violation citation. Thesame or different vehicle at Location C at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, September8th receives a parking violation citation. Computing system 100 mayanalyze these parking violation citations to infer that the same ordifferent vehicle parked at Location C at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, September15th may receive a parking violation citation. One of ordinary skill inthe art may appreciate that a notification based on an inference may notbe completely accurate, as implied by the word “infer.” However, it isalso to be understood that a notification may be corrected, updated,supplemented, or otherwise modified by ratings from users. Anotification containing legal parking related data that is based oninference is valuable for a user because it may be sent to a user evenwhen there may not be much information available; in this manner, a usermay be given reasonably accurate information in situations withpotentially little data regarding legal parking.

Further to the example provided in FIG. 18, FIG. 19 shows a diagramillustrating an example of notification 1900 that a user may receiveregarding potential parking prohibition based on time in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the inventive disclosure. Based on the user'sintended parking location 1600 and the parking violation related dataassociated with the user's location, 100 1st Avenue, and current timeand day, Tuesday, 9:41 AM, the computing system 100 might issue anotification to advise the user against parking at an intended parkinglocation 1600 because, according to the data in database 106, no parkingis permitted between 9:30 AM and LOAM due to street cleaning. If theuser is curious about the details of this notification, “See Details”button 1904 is available to click. When the user clicks on the button,the user is taken to a details panel that displays the relevantcitations issued 1906. In this depiction, the category of applicablecitations is street cleaning, which is also the reason for thesecitations' issuance. Also displayed are the relevant times of when thosecitations were issued, and since database 106 contains a record ofparking citations issued at 9:31 AM, 9:51 AM and 9:54 AM, and thecurrent time is 9:41 AM, the system may infer that the user maypotentially receive a parking violation citation at the user's intendedparking location 1600 at this current time.

The system may also allow a user to post a request or demand forrefilling an expiring parking meter, in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the inventive disclosure, as depicted in the flowchart ofFIG. 20. When User 1 arrives at a parking space, the location andrelevant prohibitions or conditions relating to enforceability of theparking space may be recorded (Step 2000), where User 1 can be guided bycomputing system 100 to set up an alert when a meter is to expire (Step2002). Computing system 100 may send a notification to a user'scomputing device 132 (Step 2004) to remind the user about theapproaching parking meter expiration. Optionally, the system mayautomatically detect the parking time limit during which the parkingmeter is in effect (e.g., where the meter is only in effect from 4:00 pmto 10:00 pm, and the present time is approaching 10:00 pm) isapproaching its expiration so as to inform the user whether or not thereis a need to refill the meter. In other words, in response todetermining that the parking meter associated with the parking spacerequires refilling, i.e. payment of a parking meter fee for the parkingspace, at the expiration of a certain time, the system can be configuredto notify the first user of the approaching expiration time. Thelocation of the parking meter and the expenses required for a timeextension can be sent to User 1 through SMS, phone call, email, etc.,and the user can decide to refill the meter by himself/herself (Decision2006). The User 1 can extend the time remaining on the parking meter byrefilling the parking meter by himself/herself and dismiss thenotification (Step 2008).

A user may be able to pay a parking meter fee from his/her remotecomputing device 132 if the fee can be paid online or otherwise fromremote computing device 132. If the User 1 cannot refill the parkingmeter, then User 1 may seek the assistance of another user to help inrefilling the parking meter (e.g., an assistance request) by posting aparking meter payment request (Step 2010), which is sent to relevantusers, who review the request (Step 2012). A parking meter paymentrequest can include the fee of the parking meter and the service feethat the User 1 offers. User 1 waits for a User 2 to respond to therequest (Decision 2014). If no user responds within a certain (e.g., apredetermined) amount of time, the offer expires (Step 2016). Uponreceipt of the request, users can then choose to accept, reject, orcounteroffer the request by proposing a different service fee inresponse to the request by the User 1. For example, if a user realizesthat the parking meter is running out of time and cannot refill themeter for reasons out of the user's control, the user may use remotecomputing device 132 to send out a message to other users within acertain distance of the location of the parked vehicle, which may havebeen recorded when the user parked, with information on the monetaryoffer, such as, “I will pay $5.00 if you can refill my parking meter,which is $3.00 for the parking fee and a $2.00 service charge.” Thelocation of the vehicle may be sent with the message, which was recordedby computing system 100 when the user parked. Other users can see themessage and decide to either accept the terms or make a counterofferhaving a different amount and/or different terms (e.g., “I will refillyour parking meter for $6.00 which is a $3.00 parking fee and a $3.00service charge”) or choose not to respond to the message. A User 2 whoaccepts the offer first may be allowed to complete the transaction bynegotiating the terms (Step 2018). Once the users reach a deal, therequest may be taken down and other users may be disqualified, i.e. theparking meter payment request is no longer available to other users oncethe User 1 and a User 2 have reached an agreement. Both users maycommunicate by using internal communication functions including but notlimited to, live-chat, messaging, and any other form of communication.Once the terms are offered and accepted, User 1 sends payment to anescrow account, and User 2 is notified of this (Step 2020). After User 2is notified of the present funds, User 2 can pay the meter fee; whenUser 2 pays, User 2 sends proof of payment (e.g., a receipt, a windowsticker, a picture of the meter with extended time, etc.) and User 1 isnotified (Step 2022). There may be confirmation of the received payment,and the system releases the funds from escrow to user 2 (Step 2024). Forcertain parking meters, evidence of payment into the meter may have tobe displayed in or on the vehicle parked in the parking space. In suchcases, the method and system may first determine whether the parkingmeter associated with the parking space requires display of the paymentevidence or the confirmation of the payment on the vehicle. If so, thesecond user will be notified that he/she should display the paymentevidence or the confirmation of the payment on the vehicle and transmitproof that the payment evidence or confirmation of the payment has beendisplayed on the vehicle (by sending a photo, video, or any other meansof image capturing) in order for the user to release the funds fromescrow. Upon completion of the transaction, the users may optionallyrate each other (Step 2026).

In such an embodiment, the parking meter data in the databases isreceived from users through user engagement panels 134. The parkingmeter data may include a location of the parking meter, cost of parkingat a parking meter, the start time of the parking meter, and the endtime of the parking meter. Furthermore, through user engagement panel134, users will also be able to indicate whether a meter has stoppedfunctioning or is “out of order,” to improve government response time infixing defective meters as well as alert other users of the potentialdifficulty.

As seen in FIG. 21, a user may send a request through the system toother users regarding a demand for providing an expiring parking meterpayment in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure. Here, a User 1 remotely sends a parking meter paymentrequest through a network such as wide-area network 126 to User 2 andUser 3. Users 2 and 3 are close to the User 1's parking location 2100.User 1 can negotiate with either of User 2 or User 3 to have the parkingmeter refilled without having to leave his/her current location (e.g.,in his apartment or office), and the other users can be giveninformation about the location of User 1's vehicle and/or the expiringparking meter as recorded by the system. A “user” as described hereindoes not necessarily have to be a driver or in a vehicle a user couldbe, for example, a pedestrian or a bicyclist and still refill anotheruser's meter. In certain embodiments, User 1 may have parked his/hervehicle in parked vehicle location or parking space 2102, remote fromparking meter station 2104 associated with parking space 2102. In such ascenario, User 1 may remotely send a parking meter payment requestthrough a network such as wide-area network 126 to User 4 and User 5. Asshown, User 4 may be close to parking meter station 2104 while User 5may be close to parking space 2102 where User 1's vehicle is parked. Thesystem may detect that User 4 is closer to parking meter station 2104and transmit this information to User 1. Based on User 4 being within acertain predetermined distance of parking meter station 2104, and notthe vehicle parked in parked vehicle location 2202, User 1 may opt forUser 4 to replenish or refill the expiring parking meter, for example,in the manner described with respect to FIG. 20. The system maydetermine the distance of each potential user from both the parkedvehicle and from the parking meter in order to determine whether to sendthe request to the potential user in accordance with preset distances orrules, and in order to be able to provide the user making the requestwith this information.

As seen in the flowchart illustration of FIG. 22, the system offers anapproach for a user to post an offer to refill an expiring parkingmeter, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the inventivedisclosure. A user, for example User 3, who is in a metered parking zonewith parked vehicles (Step 2200), may also offer to help refill parkingmeters which may be approaching expiration for a fee by making an offerto other users whose parked vehicles are within a certain radius of User3's current location. User 3 may post an offer such as an offer torefill meters as a message through the system that may include theamount User 3 would like to receive as a service charge (Step 2202).This service charge may be negotiable. Additionally, the Administratormay hire employees to use this method to send out messages with offersto help refill parking meters for a fee. User 3 may wait or remain inthe area until a User 4 responds (Decision 2204). If no user responds,the offer might expire (Step 2206). If a User 4 responds (Decision2204), Users 3 and 4 negotiate the terms (Step 2208). The User 4 may putthe total amount of money in an escrow account (Step 2210) created bythe system or has the option of transferring funds directly to User 3.The User 3 may receive notification regarding the deposit of funds inescrow and may then replenish the parking meter after receiving thelocation of the vehicle and/or of the relevant parking meter (Step2212). Once refilled, User 3 provides proof of payment in the form of anaccurate photograph that may include the vehicle plate number, filledmeter, and/or receipt of payment as evidence. Once the photograph isuploaded into the mobile application, the User 4 may verify thephotograph, the payment may be confirmed, and the system may release thepayment placed in escrow (Step 2214), which may be credited to the User3's account. This method incentivizes both users to participate becausethe User 4 may avoid receiving an expired meter violation ticket andUser 3 may earn extra money through the service charge. There may alsobe a dispute resolution function incorporated to resolve any disputesbetween users. Both users may rate each other upon completing thetransaction (Step 2216).

As seen in the flowchart illustration of FIG. 23, the system also offersan approach for a parking meter payment assistance system configured toboth assist a user in finding available parking spaces at his/herintended location and to refill a parking meter associated with alocation where the user parks his/her vehicle. With respect to FIG. 23,the first user may press a button on the display of the mobile device tolog the location of his/her vehicle (Step 2302). After the location ofthe first user's vehicle has been logged, the system may then identifyavailable parking spaces that other nearby users have input into thesystem (Step 2304). Once the first user is parked, he/she can then inputinformation regarding the location and/or the expiration time of aparking meter (Step 2306). Additionally, the first user can set thenumber of reminders he/she desires, the specific intervals at which thereminder alerts should be sent, and/or how much time in advance of theexpiration time of the parking meter to send the alert. Alternatively,the system may automatically detect the location and time expiration ofthe parking meter. Once the system detects that the parking meter isapproaching expiration (Step 2308), the first user will receive anotification from the system based on the user's preferences oraccording to default settings (Step 2310).

The system will then inquire whether the user can refill the meter byhimself/herself or whether the user requires or desires assistance fromanother user for this (Step 2312). If the user is able to refill themeter personally (No, Step 2312), then the first user may turn off thealert and refill the parking meter himself/herself before expiration(Step 2314). If the first user requires or desires assistance to refillthe meter (Yes, Step 2312), then the first user can broadcast a requestfor assistance to other users (Step 2316) within a certain distance ofthe parked vehicle or the parking meter associated with the parkedvehicle to seek assistance with refilling the parking meter. The requestis sent through the central server and the system will compare thelocation with other users nearby and send the request for only thenearby users to view. The request may contain information such as theamount of time to be added as well as the cost for such amount of timeto refill the meter, a preferred second user's service fee, the time itmay take for the second user to travel to the location of the firstuser's parked vehicle location, the time remaining until meterexpiration, etc. One or more nearby users may either accept the firstuser's request/offer or may present a counteroffer (Step 2318) (e.g., toinclude a higher service fee). If a nearby user responds, the first userand the nearby user may negotiate the payment details and terms until anagreement is reached. Once the agreement has been reached, then bothusers must perform according to the terms as agreed upon (Step 2320).The two users may then have the option to rate each other aftercompletion of the transaction (Step 2322).

As illustrated in FIG. 24, shown is first user 2402 approaching adesired destination where, in advance of arriving at the destination,he/she may inquire whether there are any available legal parking spaces.With respect to FIG. 24, first user 2402 intends to approach a certaindestination, in this case, apartment building 2404, and uses theapplication to log his/her for the first user's current location. Firstuser 2402 can then broadcast a message 2412 through the system which issent to one or more nearby users 2410 who may be offering a parkingspace. The acceptable number of users nearby may be preset and/oradjusted within the first user's preferences. In broadcast message 2412,first user 2402 can opt to include the duration of time that he/sheplans to park, the type of vehicle he/she needs to park, a service feewhich may be negotiable or not, etc. In the embodiment shown, there maybe two locations within an acceptable predetermined distance ofdestination location 2404 with available parking spaces, a municipalparking lot 2414 having, for example, central electronic parking meterstation 2406, and street parking 2408, for example, in residential area2416 having single space parking meters 2418. If there is a parkingspace available, a second user may choose to respond to the first user'srequest and accept the offer. First user 2402 is then provided with thelocation of the available parking space remotely on his/her remotecomputing device, and then first user 2402 drives to the providedlocation of the parking space.

Upon parking, first user 2402 will fill the parking meter for a desiredamount of time and then go about his/her business. When the parkingmeter approaches expiration, first user 2402 may receive a notificationthat the meter is close to expiring so as to give him/her sufficienttime to return to and leave the parking space or to refill or replenishthe parking meter. Should first user 2402 require assistance inrefilling the meter, another broadcast message may be sent out to nearbyother users 2410. One or more of nearby users 2410 may choose to acceptor reject the first user's request after viewing it. Once a second useraccepts the first user's request, a channel of communication is openedbetween them so as to complete the transaction, as discussed in greaterdetail with respect to FIGS. 20-21. Additionally, if the first user'sinitial broadcast states that the service fees are negotiable, then thesecond user may make a counteroffer for the service fee, whereby anegotiation ensues between the users until an agreement has beenreached.

Parking spaces are often spaces with limitations related to the size ofthe vehicle. When offering and demanding parking spaces in general,users may indicate the type of vehicle they are currently driving or thetype of vehicle that is currently parked in the space. The system maythen compare the relative sizes of the vehicles to determine if thevehicle a user is driving may fit in the parking space. In someexemplary embodiments, the dimensions of the parking space may beentered in or retrieved from the database 106. There may be threeapplicable categories, for example, bigger vehicles, same-size vehicles,and smaller vehicles. A parking space occupied by a user with a certainsized vehicle may only allow another user with the same vehicle categoryor a smaller vehicle category. For example, a user's parked four-doorsedan may be classified as a regular type vehicle or a compact vehicle.Another user driving a large pickup may not be allowed to park in theuser's space because a pickup may be categorized as a bigger vehicle,which may be too large to fit in a compact vehicle space, where onlysame-size vehicles or smaller vehicles may park in the space.

It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employedherein is for purposes of description and not of limitation. Havingdescribed at least one of the preferred embodiments of the inventivedisclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to beunderstood that such embodiments are merely exemplary and that theinvention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that variouschanges, modifications, and adaptations may be affected therein by oneskilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of theinvention as defined in the appended claims. Therefore, while theembodiments herein have been described in terms of preferredembodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that theembodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spiritand scope of the claims. Any exemplary embodiments described herein aremerely illustrative, and many variations can be introduced withoutdeparting from the spirit of the disclosure or from the scope of theappended claims. For example, elements and/or features of differentexemplary embodiments may be combined with each other and/or substitutedfor each other within the scope of this disclosure and appended claims.The scope of the invention, therefore, shall be defined solely by thefollowing claims. Further, it will be apparent to those of skill in theart that numerous changes may be made in such details without departingfrom the spirit and the principles of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for seekingassistance with timely refilling a parking meter, comprising: receivingdata indicating that a vehicle of a first user is parked in a parkingspace associated with a parking meter; storing the data in a database;receiving parking meter time limit information for the parking meter;identifying an expiration time at which the parking meter time limitexpires; notifying the first user of the expiration time of the parkingmeter during a predetermined time period prior to the expiration time;transmitting a request from the first user to one or more additionalusers for assistance with refilling the parking meter; identifying anacceptance of the request by a second user selected from the one or moreadditional users; and transmitting the acceptance of the request fromthe second user to the first user.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the one or more additional users are located within a firstpredetermined distance of the parking space or within a secondpredetermined distance of a parking meter location corresponding to theparking space.
 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:storing a period of time the parked vehicle has been parked in theparking space; and computing cost information associated with extendinga remaining amount of time on the parking meter.
 4. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising: transmitting information associated withthe parked vehicle of the first user to the one or more additional usersover a plurality of mobile devices associated with the one or moreadditional users, the information including at least one of the parkingspace, a parking meter location, or an estimated distance or travel timeto the parked vehicle or the parking meter associated with the parkedvehicle.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the informationfurther includes an amount to be paid to the parking meter, a proposedservice fee for the second user, or vehicle details comprising at leastone of a plate number, a color of the parked vehicle, or a photo of thevehicle.
 6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:enabling the first user to negotiate the proposed service fee with oneor more of the one or more additional users, wherein the acceptance ofthe request includes the negotiated service fee.
 7. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising: establishing an escrow account for theuser to deposit payment for the refilling of the parking meter;notifying the second user of the deposit payment in the escrow account;receiving information from the second user indicative of proof of therefilling of the parking meter; and transmit the deposit payment fromthe escrow account to the second user.
 8. A computer-implemented methodfor seeking assistance with timely refilling a parking meter,comprising: receiving data indicating that a vehicle of a first user isparked in a parking space associated with a parking meter; storing thedata in a database, wherein the data includes a location of the parkingmeter associated with the parking space and a location of the vehicleparked in the parking space; receiving parking meter time limitinformation for the parking meter; identifying an expiration time atwhich the parking meter time limit expires; determining whether theparking meter associated with the parking space requires refilling atthe expiration time; in response to determining that the parking meterassociated with the parking space requires refilling at the expirationtime, notifying the first user of the expiration time of the parkingmeter during a predetermined time period prior to the expiration time;transmitting a request from the first user to one or more additionalusers for assistance with refilling the parking meter; identifying anacceptance of the request by a second user selected from the one or moreadditional users; and transmitting the acceptance of the request fromthe second user to the first user.
 9. The method according to claim 8,wherein the one or more additional users are located within a firstpredetermined distance of the parking meter location corresponding tothe parking space or within a second predetermined distance from theparked vehicle.
 10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:transferring into an escrow account an amount to be paid to refill theparking meter and a negotiated service fee; receiving, from the seconduser, proof of payment of refilling the parking meter; and transmitting,by the second user, the proof of payment of refilling the parking meterto a mobile device of the first user.
 11. The method according to claim10, further comprising: transferring the negotiated service fee and theamount to be paid to the parking meter from the escrow account to anaccount of the secondary user.
 12. The method according to claim 10,further comprising: determining whether the parking meter associatedwith the parking space requires proof of payment for the parking spaceto be displayed on the vehicle; notifying the second user to display theproof of payment on the vehicle; and transmitting, by the second user,evidence that the proof of payment is displayed on the vehicle.
 13. Themethod according to claim 8, further comprising: enabling the first userto set a first time at which the parking meter will expire and a secondtime at which to transmit to the first user a reminder of the firsttime.
 14. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: enablingcommunication between the first user and the one or more additionalusers to negotiate terms for refilling the parking meter, wherein thecommunication is at least one of live-chat, messaging, or any other formof communication over a mobile application.
 15. A computer-implementedsystem for seeking assistance with timely refilling a parking meter, thesystem comprising: at least one server; a database for storing parkingmeter data; a plurality of remote computing devices associated with aplurality of users in connection with a communication network; at leastone non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storingcomputer-readable instructions, wherein the at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium is in connection with the communicationnetwork and resides on the at least one server; and at least oneprocessor for executing the computer-readable instructions to: receivedata indicative of a vehicle associated with a first user being parkedin a parking space; store the data associated with the parking space ina database; receive parking meter time limit information for a parkingmeter associated with the parking space; identify an expiration time atwhich the parking meter time limit expires; determine whether theparking meter associated with the parking space requires refilling atthe expiration time; in response to determining that the parking meterassociated with the parking space requires refilling at the expirationtime, notify the first user of the expiration time of the parking meterduring a predetermined time period prior to the expiration time;transmit a request from the first user to one or more additional usersfor assistance with refilling the parking meter; identify an acceptanceof the request by a second user selected from the one or more additionalusers; transmit the acceptance of the request from the second user tothe first user; establish an escrow account for the user to depositpayment for the refilling of the parking meter; notify the second userof the deposit payment in the escrow account; receive information fromthe second user indicative of proof of the refilling of the parkingmeter; and transmit the deposit payment from the escrow account to thesecond user.
 16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the one ormore additional users are located within a first predetermined distanceof the parking space or within a second predetermined distance of theparking meter location corresponding to the parking space.
 17. Thesystem according to claim 15, wherein the request comprises an amount oftime to be added to the parking meter, a location of the parking space,the parking meter location, and a proposed service fee, and wherein theat least one processor further executes the computer-readableinstructions to: store a period of time the parked vehicle has beenparked in the parking space; and computing a cost associated withextending a remaining amount of time on the parking meter by the amountof time to be added.
 18. The system according to claim 15, wherein theat least one processor further executes the computer-readableinstructions to: transmit information associated with the parked vehicleof the first user to the one or more additional users over the pluralityof remote computing devices, the information including the location ofthe parking space or the parking meter location associated with theparked vehicle, and an estimated distance or travel time to the parkingspace or the parking meter location associated with the parked vehicle.19. The system according to claim 15, wherein the information furtherincludes an amount to be paid to the parking meter, a proposed servicefee for the second user, or vehicle details comprising at least one of aplate number, a color of the parked vehicle, or a photo of the vehicle.20. The system according to claim 15, wherein the at least one processorfurther executes the computer-readable instructions to: receive acounter-offer from the one or more additional users to a proposedservice fee offered by the first user for the assistance with refillingthe parking meter; and enable the first user to negotiate the proposedservice fee with the one or more additional users, wherein theacceptance of the request includes the negotiated service fee.